Cows

A couple of weeks ago I had to pass a couple of hours in Stoke on Trent while the Other Half visited a friend in hospital, so I dropped in to the Potteries Museum. 

It's a great place, with several important artefacts, but one of the most popular exhibits is the Keiller collection of 667 cow creamers. The jugs were gathered over 30 years by Alexander and Gabrielle Keiller (the marmalade family). The ceramics were presented to the museum in 1962.

Cow creamers are basically milk jugs in the form of a cow, with a hole in the back to fill the jug, and a hole in the mouth to pour through.

The earliest examples in Britain were Dutch imports made in silver, but by the mid 18th century the Staffordshire potters were copying them in ceramic. Eventually their popularity grew and they were made all over Great Britain, well into the 19th century.

The majority of the Keiller Collection were manufactured in the second half of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century.

I own a modern cow creamer that I bought from M&S a few years ago but it's nowhere near as fancy as the ones at the museum.  For example, I particularly liked this one on the right - catalogued as Garten Bos. According to the museum website it dates from around 1820 and was made in Glamorgan, South Wales.