Places of Origin

Upstairs-Downstairs: If you have read a bit of my history page, or perhaps looked st the Silver cows, you'ld agree that it's only approproiate to recognize English cow creamers with one of my two silver ones by John Schuppe, dated 1764, accompanied the more 'plebian' earthenware Staffordshire version here in the middle, which dates from the early 1800s.. It's also impoirtant to note that while the Staffordshire potteries have turned to making more modern versions of cow creamners as shown below, the traditional silver versions are still being made and many of them - like 'Dalina' here - bear a close resemblance to Schuppe's original (here only the front half of the cow...its hind quarters are the 'Dali' part). You can find more about Schuppe and Dalina on the Silver page and of course there is a separate page with a whole modest herd of 'Staffordahire' ones.

Spill vases featuring cows that can also serve as creamers are typically English, and indeed all the ones I have are from Britain. I have yet to find any from any other country, although before matches were widely available folks must have had some way of lighting their fires and pipes.

While I don't have any early English cow teapots, there are several modern English potters who specialize in teapots and throw in a cow or bull on oiccasion. Here is the infamous Bull in a China Shop by Andy Titcomb who makes limited-run teapots and salt and pepper shakers at his studio in North Cornwall. They are dated 1994 and we bought the black and white one in a tea shop the year after that while in London. It is the guilty party that started the teapot part of my collection. The brown one is a bit more rare and it came along quite a bit later. Andy's work is lovely and unique, and you can check it out on his web site at www.andytitcomb.com. These two are also featured on the Teapots page.

Here are three modern English versions that have each been produced by quite a few potteries. The one on the left is marked for Burleigh ware, the middle one for Wood Potters of Burslem, and the big flow-blue one for Royal Crownford. I have perhaps a half dozen or more of each mold, from different makers, but these three each have their own story which is perhaps worth a short introduction here.

One of the very few older firms still running under family (albeit a different family) ownership - and in the same location at the Middleport Pottery since 1888 - is Burleigh Dorling & Leigh, now trading as Burleigh, see www.bureleigh.co.uk. This firm began as Hulme & Booth in 1851, and in 1862 was taken over by William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess (thus Burgess and Leigh, thus Burleigh). It came totally under the Leigh family in 1919. They built up an export network that thrived until a ‘run of financial difficulty’ in 1999 led to the sale to the Dorling family, who now run the business. The web site claims that they’re the last working Victorian pottery factory in England. They pride themselves on their blue and white china, and note that they “use ball clay from Devon; china clay from Cornwall and the unique skilled decorating process of underglaze transfer printing.”

The potteries web site traces the history of various Woods enterprises. Their story begins in the mid 1700s with three brothers – Ralph who’s best known for Toby Jugs, Aaron who was the finest mould maker in Staffordshire, and Moses. Wood & Sons prospered under members of the family until the recession of the late 1970’s, then under a receivership was acquired by the Yorke family in 1982. Wood & Sons called in the receivers in 2005. Other Wood enterprises included that of Arthur whose Bradwell Works in Longport operated from 1904 to 1928, and from then until 1989 traded as Arthur Wood & Sons Ltd, when it was acquired by Price and Kensington. They are both now part of the Rayware Group. Another Wood, Tony, a 9th generation direct descendant of Ralph, operated his Tony Wood Studios from 1980 till ~1991.

Royal Crownford is one of the trade names of J H Weatherby & Sons Ltd, whose firm was founded in Tunstall in 1891 and moved to the Falcon Pottery in Hanley the following year, finally closing in April 2000. Its other brands included J H W and Sons, Weatherby, and Falconware.

Wales: England isn't the onl;y part of Great Britain that produced (and still procuces) lovely cow creamers. I don't have many that I'm sure come from Scotland, but I do have quite a few that are definitely from Wales. Indeed, there is a whole section of the Staffordshire page devoted to the lovely early earthenware cow creamers from the Sawansea potteries. Also, the Miniatiures page features many of the lovely 'Staffordshire-like' porcelain doll house size creamers from V&R Miniatures. There are a number of other Welsh pieces scattered throughout the collection, but these seem to me to be most representative of this lovely part of Britain.

Some of the German porcelain cow creamers are extremely large and beactifully crafted, like those in the left picture. Three more normally (and practically) sized ones are shown to the right. The one in the middle has typical Delft decorations and even says "Delft" on the belly, but the mold - one of my favorites- is most definitely German. I have several others that are German made but decorated in the Delft style, as well as a number from this mold like the one on the far right that's a soubenir of Beganburg. I'm perticularly fond of the lovely German porcelain cows with the early transfer pictures, and must have well over 50 of them, many of which I acquired from a Belgian gentleman's collection and are featured on the Advertisements and Souvenirs page.

Germany is also noted for silver cow creamers, albeit the only ones I have seen are late 19c or 20c, and from what I can tell, mostly made for export. These three all are 925 silver although many German ones are 800 silver. The big statuesque one does not bear any maker's mark, but apparently was a quite popular pattern. I have 2 of them. The little one in the middle is marked "sterling" and also bears a "B&Z" mark for the US importers, Bucholz & Zelt of New York. It it typical of the small herd of 'single-serving' silver cow creamers in my collection, many of which are also German and several of which came through B&Z. The little one on the right is one of serveral I have that comes from Hanau, famed not only for the number and quality of its silversmiths, but also for the use of "pseudo-marks' in defiance of the German assay office regulations. This one bears the mark of Johan Sigmund Kurz & Co., active from around 1848 until the 1960s. They were noted for working in the 'antique' style. This cow came to me from Germany, so presumably it was initially sold and used locally.

In adition to its lovely realistic cow creamers, German potteries - especially those in the Rudolstadt area where Schfer and Vater was located - are also noted for their humerous (and occasionally weird) ceramics. Here are just two examples, a very strange looking cow and a nursemaid that ended up as a British souvenir.

As noted on the History page, 'modern era' (as opposed to e.g. Rhytons") cow creamers are said to have originated in Holland, dating from their 17c trade with China. I don't have any of those very early ones, but I do have quite a number of fine 19c/20c Silver ones, plus enough Delft ones to justify a whole separate Delft page. Here as silver examples are on the left a lovely creamer from Cornelius Rietveld dated around 1870-80, and a modern 1951 example by Herbert Hooijkaas, both from Schoonhoven. The Delft creamers shown here are a lovely covered one that only bears the mold mark 2092 plus "Delfts R.A. Holland", a red decorated one by Regina, and one of the popular little tourist versions that typically bear windmill or sailboat designs.

Italy also has lots of silversmiths. I have only a few silver cow creamers from there however - this and a very similar one were fashioned by "Coppini & C." of Florence, and you can read more about them on the Silver page. The Italians also make quite a variety of earthenware cow creamers, mostly I believe for export since they're more into black espresso and wine than tea with cream - for example the one on the left was made for Meiselman of NY, and the smaller one in the middle is by ESTE for Tiffany.

France:These two represent some of the best early French cow creamers. The one on the left is by Alfred Renoleau, fashioned as a Dieppe souvenir. There is a lot more about this style of glaze and decoration and about Renoleau on the Faience page. The little white smiling cow with a transfer print of Mont St Michel is not quite as old - probably early 20c - and is one of many like it that I acquired from the collection of a Belgian gentleman. They are shown and discussed on the Advertising and souvenirs page.

There are also quite a numnber of modern French porcelain cow creamers, of fairly traditional or standard style. I have selected this one with trees growing up its legs as an example. There is however another Frensh 'specialty', namely "feves' or 'beans', tiny little figures that one puts as a surprise in King Cakes (Galettes du Rois, celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany in Franbce, and a Mardi Gras treat in New Orleans). They seem to be a very popular 'collectible' and I have found hundreds of cow versions, including many different brands of cattle, as well as lots of "La vache qui rit" in all kinds of strange configurations. Not many are creamers or teapots however - but this one was part of a set that had a bunch of other animal feves (since sent to a daughter in law), and there are also a couple more on the Miniatures page.

Czechoslovakia:   The 4 on the left date from well before the Czech Republic and Slovakia had their 1993 “velvet divorce”.  They all bear a red or black colored stamp that is a ½” circle with the words “Made in Czecho-Slovakia” in the middle (and occasionally a number),  thus they presumably all come from the same factory (that I’d like help identifying!).  The sitting-up creamers appear to be the most numerous, and they come in a variety of colors and sizes, from white to brown to orange to polka-dot. On the right are two modern creamers from the Czech Republic - one a very cute hand crafted folk art piece from "Vanda and Valerie" of Prague, and the other a porcelain version by Leander.

Poland:  The center of Polish pottery is the city of Boleslawiec, ~120km west of Warsaw, on the Bobr River in SW Poland near the German (Silesia) border.  Pottery making in this area, which is renowned for its white clay, dates back to around the 7c.  Boleslawiec is apparently sort of a Polish version of Stoke-on-Trent in England or Rudolstadt in Germany (I haven't visited it [yet], so this is just a guess); at any rate, it has a lot of pottery factories.  Brightly decorated Polish dinnerware from this region seems to be extremely popular in the US these days; some even showed up at an Alaskan Army base PX we visited.   Using the web as a guide, I find that the cow on the left in the left hand picture, is from Zaklad Ceramiki Artystycznej "TYRCZ", and the one on the right is from Zaklad Ceramiczny Stanislaw "WIZA" which is in the village of Parowa, about 13 km west of Boleslawiec. The smiley creamer in the center of the left picture, and the one on the left of the right shot, are most likely from Ceramika Szlachetna "DANA", which was established in 1975 and prides itself on continuing to use only traditional hand-made techniques; thus each of their pieces is marked "UNIKAT", which means unique.  The little smiley guys with the tiny round mouths are pretty obviously from the same area, but I don't have their precise pedigree. To learn more about Polish pottery, Boleslawiec, and the various factories there, check our www.artisanimports.com/Polish_Pottery/About_us.html

Spain: The jugs on the left are traditional "Iberian Bulls". The plain clay one is a 'recuerdo' or souvenir from the town of Cuenca. A web blog from a Spanish historian states that they were initially made as family presents, representing the stature and strength of the Spanish or Iberian bull. They became popular and thousands have been sold as tourist items in a wide range os sizes, colors, and somewhat modified shapes. In the middle are other typical Spanish souvenir bull figures, sized variously for wine or to serve as cruets for oil and vinegar, and available in a wide range of colors and shapes. More are shown on the Rhytons page. The one on the right is an interesting interpretation from the Atelier Domingo Punter e Hijos S.A, of Teruel in the eastern Aragon region of Spain. Their works' style and coloration recreate the beauty of XIVc Spanish Romantic ceramics. This cow (or more likely bull) is also featuresd, with more information, in Rhytons.

This definitely is a cow albeit from its size less likely a creamer than simply a decorative piece, distinctively Spanish and impressed for Sargaledos, which is a fancy ceramics gallery in Barcelona. I also have a silver Spanish cow creamer and a number of rather more 'normal' shape.

Portugal:  There seem to be a couple types of cow creamers made in Portugal. The first type, like the center and left cow in this image, claim to be reproductions of early Portugese ceramics. Or at least their decorations are, even if trhe cows/bulls themselves are not. My wife and I found a lot of these lovely creamers during a visit to Lisbon in November 1997; we came home with stuffed suitcases.  They are all handpainted, from several different factories. The second type is the more normal modern ceramic cow creamer like the one on the right here. They come in various shapes and sizes, but to my mind are nowhere near as 'special' as the fancy traditional reproductions.

Mexico: This is a particularly fine example of Mexican folk art; I bought it on eBay, and the seller indicated it was made by Guilermina Aguilar of Ocotlan de Morales, Oaxaca.  It arrived with the horns broken, but after considerable trouble I had them restored – it was nice enough to justify the effort!.

Not all Mexican cows are large and made from clay…the country also produces a number of fine ‘regular’ ceramic ones, like this creamer from Céramica Santa Maria in Cuernavaca.   There are a couple sets from the same factory in the Sugar and Creamers section.

Peru: One of the most characteristic Peruvian pottery items is the Torito De Pucara, or Little Bull of Pucara.  Pucara is located northwest of Lake Titicaca, some 140 Km southeast of Cusco on the road to Puno and the Lake. The town derives its name from the Pukara culture which flourished from about 200BC to 800AD.  It has been a center of pottery manufacture for over 2 millennia, and remains the largest ceramics producing area in southern Peru.  The Torito is a good example of the fusion of local Andean and Spanish cultures: the bull is a typically Spanish symbol of strength and courage, but it was adopted by Andean craftsmen in the later part of the 18c (recall the Spanish conquered the Inca empire in the mid-16c).  Various web sources state that the Torito originated as a ritual element for the cattle-branding ceremony, as a flask to contain a mixture of chicha (a corn based beer) and cattle blood, drunk by the priest conducting the ceremony. These days, in addition to serving as a vase and a popular tourist item, a pair of Toritos (for prosperity and fertility, since bulls now provide the main power for plowing on most farms), often accompanied by a cross and two bottles or jugs (one for holy water and one for chicha, again showing the intermixture of cultures) is installed on the roof of houses.  Our local guide stated that while the walls of farm homes are usually home-made from dried mud, the roof tiles must be bought, and thus the completion of a (costly) roof is a time for celebration, as well as the invocation of both Catholic and indigenous protective forces for the home.  The same seems to apply to this stone home with a thatch roof in Ollantaytambo, albeit here the 'bottles' are somewhat less than traditional.

Japan:As you can note on the map on the History page, most Japanese are lactose intolerant. Thus older 'cow creamers' are nonexitent, best I can tell. The Japanese do however love their beef, so cattle do arrear in other art forms - for example these beautiful 'suiteki' or calligraphy water droppers. There are many more on the Suiteki page.

A second art form in which the Japanese celebrated the cow or bull was teapots. The tea ceremony is of course a highly praised Japaese tradition, and cows appear to have been among the many forms in which the tea was prepared. Here are two examples, on the left a lovely little hand decorated porcelain teapot that was sold as Meiji, dating from pre-1893.  Quite a contrast to the more recent interpretations, and representative of the high quality of early Japanese pottery. On the right is a lovely modern interpretation hand-crafted by the noted craftsman Kameoka Katushi, a 4th generation potter of the “Motozo Kiln” in Tokoname, Japan.

The weird looking guys licking their noses are of heavy ceramic, and stamped “Occupied Japan”. Presumably they were an early post-war attempt to capture some sales to Amnericans. Interestingly, the tongue licking the nose is very similar to that of the Peruvian Toritos de Pucara. Makes me wonder if there's any possible connection. On the right are four more idisyncratic Japanese interpretations of cows. Of course thare are a whole bunch of fairly 'normal' looking cow creamers 'Made in Japan' for US and other designers and importers, but these fairly early post-WWII versions display Japanese imagination and humor. I have quite a few of each of these types plus many more that can be found on other pages, especially page 3 of Modern Variations..

China: Like the Japanese the Chinese - at least the Han Chinese - are lactose intpolerant, yet have an affinity for bulls and also for water buffalo from their southern areas. Thus the Chinese cow/bull/water buffalo items in my collection are either water droppers, or tea pots (there is one exception, a wonderful older blanc-du-chine cow that's missing its lid). The Chinese calligraphy water droppers (and water pots for washing brushed) come in bronze, clay, and ceramics or porcelain, also stone. Same with the teapots, two small versions of which are shown here. Visit the Suiteki and Teapots pages for more of each.

Here are two more Chinese teapots, that come with a bit of an interesting story. I bought the teapot on the right in an antique store in Lisbon, Portugal, where the dealer indicated it was made for the export trade @1880. Its base markings are the ones on the right (third picture , and thanks to Paula Airey of the Isle of Wight from whom I bought a more modern copy, I was led to the www.gotheborg.com site of Jan-Erik Nilsson, a treasure house of information on Chinese and Japanese porcelain. Comparing them to the sets of marks found there, they seem similar to those of PIN - "Treasure/Product" or "Precious Product" mark #384, Qiang Yi Tong/Zhen Cang Pin "Qiang Yi Hall Precious Treasure". The newer teapot with the heavier somewhat blurry bears the marks (#114 or 767 in the gotheborg list) of Yi Qian Tang (factory name) and Long Nian Zhi (Made in the year of the Dragon) and is likely from the 1980's. These porcelain decoration factories used older blanks from China and Japan, and German enamels, and specialize in products for 'expats'. I was very excited when I got my first one of these (albeit aghast at the shipping price from Lisbon), although I have since seem quite a number on ebay, all of them seemingly modern versions.

U.S.A.Since the northeastern portion of the US was settled by Brits, it was only natural for some enterprising potter to start producing cow creamers that bore at least a family resemnblance to those from Staffordshire. While there may have been some that are earlier than those shown here I have never found any. Thus what is referred to as American Rockingham ware from the glaze, or Bennington from where they were made in Vermont starting in the late 18c or early 19c, will have to serve as examples of early American cow creamers. Although I have only a limited number of these, their quality and status (plus the fact that I'm a Yankee myself) entitles them to a page of their own.

The US has a whole lot os silversmiths including of course Paul Revere, but I have never found any American 'sterling' (or even 800) silver cow creamers (unless of course one of mine that I haven't been able to ientify is such) except for the two doll house sized ones that are featured on both the Silver and Miniatures pages. So I have elected to show a couple of a very modern pewter cow creamers made by Vagabond House. There are a lot of pewterers in the US, dating from colonial times when pewter was a spatle of everyday life, at least for the more well-to-do settlers. As noted on www.colonialsense.com, "Pewter made its appearance in Jamestown, Virginia by 1610...Pewter arrived in the New England area by the 1630s as newly arrived colonists brought pewter with them from their native England. In 1635, Richard Graves opened the first American pewter store in Salem Massachusetts. He supplied homes, taverns, and churches in the colonies with ladles, mugs, plates, bowls, and spoons. Although he was presented at a Quarterly Court on february 28, 1642-1643 for "opression in his trade of pewtering," he was acquitted of the charge. Along with Richard Graves, there were four other pewterers that were active in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1640..." and a whole lot of other neat information. So although these two cows are 21c, they are representative of a long and proud American tradition.

This is about as American as you can get - a Whirley Moo Cow Creamer, shown here in a set with a sugar dispenser. They were hugely popular in the 1970s, and millions were sold in roadside restaurants. These days they are one of the most prolific cow items on Ebay. I just checked and found about 290 of them on offer. You can read a whole lot about them on the Advertising and Souvenirs page.

This is another great American tradition - handmade items, or folk art. On the left are two examples of the lovely pottery from the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. Cows may not have been their favorite object to craft, but many potters did make some, and my small collection is at the bottom of Page 2 of Modern Variations. On the right is just plain old 20c 'folk art', the bigger one by an unknown nmaker but bearing the words "Caro, Her Cow" inside, and the dark one by James C. Seagraves who was obviously very proud of his home town. There is actually a third type of these 'hand done' cow creamers, namely those from places where folks rent a mold to make their item and then paint it however they like. My Father made me a cow creamer at one of these places, and his and many others are on the Modern Variations pages.

My collection has several hundred cow creamers, teapots, etc designed by American firms but made where manufacturing is cheap - Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, China... There are many fewer that are both deigned and made here. Many of these, like the two on the left by Tom Hatton, are the products of master artist potters who take great pride in their originality and quality. I suppose one could almost call these 'high-end' folk art, and Anmericans excel at it. On the right are two that aren't quite as idiosyncratic but nevertheless are proudly American. The little kneeling guy is by Brad Keeler, and the lovely head by Coventry. There are a bunch of other made in the US examples in the collection, but again they are outnumbered by those designed here then imported.

Canada: I have bought many creamers in and from Canada, but know of few that were made there.  Here are three Canadian-made creamers from McMaster Pottery which was founded by Ohio-born potter Harry McMaster and his son Robert in 1939 in Dundas, Ontario (it and other McMaster enterprises are now part of the MMG Group). The dark brown one with red drippings in the glaze is particularly interesting because it’s made from red clay, is a souvenir from Ft Macleod, Alberta (just an hour’s drive eat of the Rockies), and still bears the red and gold “McMaster Craft” stamp on its rump.

These two creamers reflect the Ukranian heritage of many of the settlers in central Canada –They are from quite standard molds and may not have been initially made in Canada but were almost certainly decorated there. They bear Ukranian decorations from (l) Ceramic Cottage Vegreville, Alberta, and (rt) Diana May Clay, Ltd of Saskatchewan.

From the seller and Wikipedia we learn that in 1950 21 year-old Dennis Tupy left his native Czechoslovakia and heaed to Halifax. He ended up in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. With the help of Jozo Weider (a fellow Czech), founder of a ski resort on the slopes of Blue Mountain in Collingwood, in the fall of 1953 he launched the Blue Mountain Pottery. Originally producing hand-painted ski motifs on purchased blanks, production of red clay items like this creamer started in 1953-1954. They went on to produce various types of pottery, from animal figurines to jugs, pots and vases. Blue Mountain Pottery items feature a unique, trademarked glazing process known as "reflowing decorating." Two different liquid glazes, one light and one dark in color, were applied. During the firing process the glazes would run, creating streaking patterns unique to each piece. In 2004, foreign competition and changing tastes led to Blue Mountain pottery's closure, although its pottery is widely collected and has spawned a Collectors Club. This creamer celebrates Timmins, located in NE Ontario, noted for its lumbering and mining industries.