Diana Stuft Confections
What Is It?
Thin-shelled hard candies with soft fruit marmalade, almond, filbert, or peanut butter fillings — sold in ornate lithographed tins featuring a girl and Borzoi dog.
History
Diana Stuft Confections were Bunte Brothers' most celebrated product and a genuine innovation in American candy. The concept was simple but novel: a crisp, thin hard candy shell encasing a soft fruit marmalade or nut butter filling. Flavors included fruit marmalades, almond paste, filbert cream, and peanut butter. Bunte claimed these were the first hard candies in America to feature a soft fruit filling — a claim taken seriously enough that the U.S. Government selected Diana Stuft Confections to supply soldiers in the trenches during World War I. The candy was packaged in beautiful lithographed tins featuring an elegant girl and a Borzoi dog — a design so distinctive that the tins themselves became a collectible separate from the candy. Surviving Diana tins regularly appear at antique markets and command strong prices. When Bunte Brothers was sold to Chase Candy Company in 1954 and the Chicago plant closed in 1961, Diana Stuft Confections disappeared with it.