Aardman Animations egg cups

Wallace loves cheese and (apparently) the studio Aardman Animations loves not only chickens, but also soft-boiled eggs. Free-range or not, eggs are more than welcome in the generous selection of cups inspired in their characters that are available on the market. Nick Park fans are happy and so should be egg cup collectors.

Known details: 1) Wallace head with movable blue cap, made in China for Enesco's Border Fine Arts, designed by Paul Cardew, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" model [eggcup4879]; 2) Gromit head with movable blue cap, made in China for Enesco's Border Fine Arts, designed by Paul Cardew, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" model [eggcup4880]; 3) Rocky Rhodes bucket, produced in 2000, from a series of eight egg cups with "Chicken run" characters offered by a British eggs producer [eggcup1838]; 4) Wendolene head, offered by Ty-phoo tea [eggcup1689]; 5) plastic, Shaun head, made in China for The Boots Company PLC, first sold in 1989 [eggcup1836].

Buckets

What happens to a common shaped egg cups when it loses its foot? It becomes a bucket! Of course, this is not exactly true, but what collectors and specialists call "buckets" are indeed egg cups without feet. It is generally considered that they are specially popular in Great Britain, but that does not mean that you won't find them almost everywhere. This selection presents some examples of simple buckets - some other day we'll have a look at buckets with funny and children pictures.

Exact and true details: 1) produced by Upsala Ekeby, probably during the 1970s (Sweden) [eggcup2735]; 2) Duraline egg cups, produced by Dudson (United Kingdom) [eggcup2779]; 3) hand-painted by Ester Östman in 1977 (Sweden) [eggcup1608]; 4) marked "Satsuma, Japan" [eggcup0254]; 5) produced by Royal Doulton for British Airways, used by the company until 1996 [eggcup2284]; 6) stoneware [eggcup0044]; 7) marked "Taunton Vale, Made In England", produced probably during the 1970s [eggcup2735]; 8) copper, made by Linton (United Kingdom) [eggcup2207].

You might recall some buckets already appeared here in this blog, like this little chicken Ikea egg cup from the Ikea egg cups post, the Cadbury's caramel egg cup from the Advertising and merchandising egg cups selection, or the Jane Brookshaw egg cup from the Little chicken egg cups family.

If you want to see other types of egg cup shapes, you could go directly to the Common shaped egg cups message or to the Integral saucer egg cups category.

Ikea egg cups

Some egg cup collectors don't like Ikea. They think too many old European potteries have been forced to close down because they were unable to compete with the Swedish company. Nevertheless, we can't complain too much: over the past years Ikea has been selling a wide range of quite original and more often than not beautiful egg cups. By offering them even in countries that have never been known for eating a lot of soft-boiled eggs, the company has contributed in its own way to keeping egg cups close to the world population.

Known and carefully noted details: 1) marked NaCI, made in Vietnam, marketed in 1999 [eggcup1980]; 2) marble, made in Taiwan, bought in 1990 [eggcup0984]; 3) made in Vietnam, bought in 2002 [eggcup2411]; 4) Raljans egg cup, made in Portugal, bought in 2002 [eggcup2412]; 5) wood, made in Vietnam, marketed in 1999 [eggcup2879]; 6) bouhgt in 1995 [eggcup1121]; 7) made in Vietnam, bought in 2001 [eggcup1981]; 8) made in China, has a "Hand made quality" sticker, was bought in 2001 [eggcup1985].

Please note that you will find two other Ikea egg cups in the Egg shaped egg cups selection: this covered egg cup, made in Thailand, and this one, made in Vietnam. The glass egg cup, that can also be used as a glass, is very similar to this Rasteli one that we had already seen in the Glass egg cups post.

Carlton Ware egg cups

It's uncommon to find a pottery so strongly linked to the egg cups' world as the English Carlton Ware company. The firm, now defunct, has produced a wide range of pieces in different styles, the Walking Ware type being probably the most popular and undoubtedly the most influential of them all. Created at the beginning of the 1970s by Roger Michel and Danka Napiorkowska, both funding members of the Lustre Ware, the Walking Ware concept concerned not only egg cups, but plenty of different pieces like, for instance, mugs. Nevertheless, the vision of footed eggs certainly had a particular appeal that other pieces lacked. The range was introduced to the market in 1975 and it died when the company closed its doors, at the the end of the 1980s. But Carlton Ware (or Carltonware, as some call it) wasn't only about Walking Ware. It created also an important number of other pieces, some of them for merchandising purposes, like the Guinness or the Hovis egg cups, and some of them for external designers, like the Fluck & Law series. Carlton Ware is considered nowadays an extremely collectable name, and it's a known fact that some imitations have reached the market.

Known details: 1) Boss egg cup, marked "Carlton Ware, Made In England, Trade Mark" and "Lustre Pottery, 1976" [eggcup2580]; 2) from the Bean Bag series, produced in 1980, exists also in red [eggcup2392]; 3) marked "Carlton Ware, England, Lustre Poterry, 1980" [eggcup0030]; 4) from a series of crocodile-like objects produced during the last years of activity of the company [eggcups0940]; 5) from a series of objects related to Hovis Bakery firm, marked "Carlton W., England", [eggcup0504, bought in 1986]; 6) Wellingtons' model from the Walking Ware collection, exists also with black boots, marked "Carlton Ware, England, Lustre Pottery, 1980", [eggcup0018]; 7) produced in 1980, known as Big Foot egg cup; 8) covered model, produced in 1978 [eggcup3979].

Please don't forget that there are more Carlton Ware egg cups in other posts: you will find this Fluck & Law Prince Charles egg cup in the Famous people egg cups category, a funny egg shaped model in the Egg shaped egg cups family, and the first one of the Guinness egg cups in the Advertising and merchandising egg cups selection.

Very similar egg cups

It's an undeniable fact: there are thousands and thousands of egg cups in the world (there are actually more than five thousand egg cups in this house, and we know this is only a very small portion of all the egg cups ever produced). Where do egg cup creators get their inspiration from? How can it be that there are so many different models and that new ones keep appearing? Well, some creators seem to like to look for inspiration in previously existing egg cups, and the truth is that models are not always THAT different. This is what we will explore in a series of posts titled "Very similar egg cups", a series that we start today with a plastic recreation of a china egg cup.

Known and maybe important details: 1) it's a non-footed china egg cup made by the German company Bareuther during the 1960 [eggcup1446]; 2) a very similar egg cup, made in plastic, with the same form as the previous one but including an integral saucer, produced by Belgian firm D.B.P. Plastics, probably at the end of 1970s/1980s [eggcup3362].