Heads

The nicest of the head creamers are the porcelain ones made by Royal Bayreuth – these come in a variety of colors; the photo of four creamers was also shown in the Favorite Brands theme, but it is repeated here as a lead-in both to others by Royal Bayreuth, and to some ‘look-alike’ copies.  These four – actually two cows and two water buffalo – bear the Royal Bayreuth, Bavaria stamp. The other two cows are impressed Deponient (as are some of the ones with the Royal Bayreuth stamp) but without the crest.

Here’s another Royal Bayreuth example, black with red horns and trim. 

Here’s a mixture of real and copies – the ones on the outside are Royal Bayreuth, the one in the middle is missing any mark.  My suspicion is that it was made in Taiwan, as was

this beautiful white bisque one, which could easily be mistaken for Royal Bayreuth but for the gold “Made in Taiwan” sticker on the bottom.

Here is another mixture.  The red one on the left is Royal Bayreuth; the large one is marked for Royal Floretta Ware, Austria, and the two on the right are marked for M.W. Co., Germany. 

These are both copies; the “Blackpool” crested one (which is in the same series as the 3 similar to it that are shown in the Ads and Souvenirs Theme) has the “foreign” in a circle stamp, typical of imports to the UK, and the gaudy one on the right is unmarked.

This beautiful Fresian is indeed from the UK – it comes from Quail Ceramics of Church Lane, Deal, Kent.  Their web site notes that they have been in the giftware business for over 20 years, and have their designs made by small family businesses in Thailand.  Quail is best known for their animals, birds, and especially (ugh!) cats…they have a range of named cats called “The Moggies”  that apparently are quite popular, although why anyone would be the least interested in collecting ceramic cats is completely beyond me.  Cow creamers of course are a different story…but as far as I can tell, this is the one and only of those delightful animals Quail has produced.

This is an interesting light brown luster-glazed head that came from the UK via eBay, but is unmarked.  The seller termed it art deco, which doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.

These interesting variants are porcelain, and would appear to most likely be German, probably from the early 1900s.  The smaller one has an indistinguishable mark, and the larger is unmarked.

This is the plastic sugar and creamer version of Borden’s Elsie and Elmer, featured in Ads and Souvenirs.  As noted there, and as with Royal Bayreuth heads, there have been a lot of copies of this favorite cow.

Here are two different renditions, both from Japan.

And, here are three Elsie’s that seem to be sort-of look-alikes, the one on the left even bearing her name.  The two variants on the right are both impressed with the script mark “Gayet of California”.

These Japanese cow creamer heads are fairly common on eBay; they come with many small variations in the bells and coloring; there is one here that probably doesn’t match…third from the left, with the crossed eyes.

Here are more Japanese heads.  The ones on the ends have a sticker that reads “Chase, hand painted”.  The one in the middle has “Hand Painted” over a semi-circle, and is part of a set or group that also includes a horse, a mouse, and a sheep.

More Japanese versions – but pitchers rather than creamers that pour from the mouth.

Here are yet two more Japanese cow head creamers, and two marked for Coventry, Made in the USA, and mold  # 5563A.  I spent some time on the web looking for Coventry, only to find that it’s a quite popular name; there’s a Coventry in Connecticut, and one in the UK, both with pottery makers…but my guess would be Coventry Ware of Barberton, OH, that from what I can tell operated from 1932 to about 1950.  I could sure use some help on this one!

These two both have ‘voice boxes’ fitted into the bottom, so that they should ‘moo’ when tipped up.  I say ‘should’ moo, but they seem to have a bad case of laryngitis, presumably from a combination of age and repeated use.  I have yet to find one where the ‘moo-er’ actually works.

The two brown creamers shown here both came from the UK (via eBay).  The seller of the one on the left said that he had dug it out of a ‘1920-1930’s tip’.  The blue one in the middle came from Australia

Here are two large cow head pitchers, “Cowmen Mooranda” by Vandor, 1988, and  Fitz and Floyd’s lovely Heidi Holstein, of 1994, 1 ½ quart size, also featured in Favorite Brands.

Finally for this theme, here’s a bunch of glass cow heads that come apart – these are often sold as cow creamers, but I suspect that they were originally designed to hold mustard or some other condiment.