I could be a crackpot.

[Fuzzy]

I thought I'd give y'all a little look inside my hobby of collecting Victorian era cream pots.

From the late Victorian period to the middle of the 1920's some hundreds, if not thousand of local dairies throughout the United Kingdom sold cream in stone ware pots. some had a deposit charged and had to be reurned, many, however, were used only once and thrown away once emptied. Was this the real beginning of the throw away society? Fortunately, a sizeable number of pots have survived, most having been recovered from old rubbish/garbage dump sites.

Only the reasonably affluent could afford the luxury of cream and the containers had to be fit to be seen on their tables, at least on family occasions. Dairy cream pots vary enormously in shape and size, many are are the customary jug shape with a pouring lip and handle, whilst others can mimic the shape of a milk churn or conical shaped. Those that contained a product called clotted cream were usually cylindrical. the wide variety of designs and the use of attractive colours all indicate an awareness of the importance of packaging in attracting potential customers.

The appeal of these pots to me as a collector is that they have an attractive appearance, they are compact in size and display well in a small place, they exhibit the workmanship of a bygone age in sharp contrast to the machine made plastic plastic packaging of today, and, finally, with a little imagination, they can convey a great deal about life and social conditions at the turn of the 1900's.

Read here about clotted cream http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clotted_cream

As mentioned above clotted cream was usually sold in cylinders, some that were extremely patterned and some that were quite plain.

Some examples of highly patterned cylinder types used for clotted cream.....





These couple were made by the world famous Belleek pottery in Ireland. Pots of this type were usually reserved for the richest of families as they were made of fine bone china and used in the main in the area of London known as Belgravia. It was a rich area back in Victorian times and still is to this day...





An example of a plain clotted cream cylinder in the middle of these three....



But, back to the history.

Until the middle of  the 1900's dairy methods were extrememly primitive and hygeine standards were generally low. Dairymen, almost always operating independantently, supplied milk and cream only in their own localities. In densely populated urban areas much of the milk supply came from cows housed in overcrowded and unsanitary cowsheds within the city limits. Indeed, quite often the herd was driven through the urban streets and milked along the way into the customers cans and jugs. alternatively, the milk was transported many miles by human carriers using heavy wooden yokes and pails. In her 'Book of Household Management' written in 1861 Mrs Beeton declared.... Large numbers of cows are kept in confined, ill ventilated stables, and fed upon brewers grasins, so that the milk is thin and poor, and unfit for food...

Don't know who Mrs Beeton is?   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Beeton's_Book_of_Household_Management

End of part one....

[werner]

Interesting read. I love the "specially recommended for Invalids" on the front of Devonshire pot. I wonder what manner of marketing strategy that is/was

[Fuzzy]

I love the "specially recommended for Invalids" on the front of Devonshire pot. I wonder what manner of marketing strategy that is/was

As with 'Snake Oil' salesmen everywhere there were many claims made for all sorts of products in those days, aids to health being just one of them. Although I do think that the word 'invalid' was used in a different way back then. I think it covered those that were chronically ill unlike todays description.

[Fuzzy]

Continued.....
Three major factors encouraged the developement of a more efficient and hygeinic milk supply and the growth of larger dairy firms. Firstly, the rapid expansion of the railway system from the 1850's onwards enabled enterprising dairy men to organise the daily transportation of milk from the countryside to the urban centers. Secondly, the developement of refrigeration techniques in the 1860's resulted in farm cooled milk staying fresh for up to 12 hours longer. And, thirdly, the invention in 1879 of the first practical centrifugal cream seperator by the Swede Dr De Laval meant that the cream could thereafter be produced more efficiently.

Prior to Dr De Laval's invention people were aware that the seperation of cream from milk occured naturally. Because, when milk is allowed to stand for a period of time, the cream which contains most of the fat, rises to the top due to the difference in weight or specific gravity. The traditional method of seperation, 'setting' as it was known, was to allow the whole milk to stand in a shallow pan for about 12 hours and then to skim off the cream after seperation had taken place. In summer this often meant that both the milk and the cream had started to turn sour.

This is where my collecting bug starts, for in the 1880's following the factors mentioned above as the mechanical seperator became more widespread the "Jar Cream Trade", as it was known, began to develope. Dairymen realised that there were many customers who required from perhaps a gallon of milk, but had no use for such large quantities of residual skimmed milk. There were, however, vast differences in the types and quality of cream sold in jars, fresh cream, pasteurised cream, preserved cream, double or switching cream, Devonshire cream,clotted cream, thick cream and thin cream.

Some more pics to not only show the difference in size and shape, but also the amount of decoration depending on the class of person to whom the cream would be supplied....

This pic showing three different sizes are quite plain in appearance and were probably used to supply a specific area where the population were upper working class or lower middle class.



Some different shapes, sizes and levels of decoration...



More to follow when I unfreeze Photobucket.....

[Ruth]

These are so cool....I can see why you collect them.  I would not know of them if it weren't for this board.......I do keep my eyes open for them now, but haven't found any.   The history is facinating as well.
So I quickly read most of those links, but I didn't (Philadelphia style) cream cheese mentioned.  When I first was reading about the cylinders, that is what I kept thinking of. I get the feeling that the clotted creme may have been similar in texture to our cream cheese but may have had more of a fat content?  Or is the clotted cream a completely different product than the Philadelphia Cream Cheese?  In case you haven't noticed by now....my description of Philadelphia Cream Cheese is so brand specific here in the states, that we all pretty much know what type of cheese that is by the name.   Not sure what makes the difference between a clotted cream and cheese....?

[Fuzzy]

Sorry Ruth I can't help with the difference between Philly cheese and clotted cream cos I don't know.

But, I do agree with you that they're cool looking. Another factor is that they display so well. Here's a pic of a collection that recently went on sale on eBay.

[Ruth]

My gosh...I bet they want a mint for those!
But have you ever had clotted cream?

[Fuzzy]

My gosh...I bet they want a mint for those!
But have you ever had clotted cream?

Some can be quite expensive and some can be quite cheap. I was bidding on various pots in this collection and know for certain that #24 sold for about 44 dollars and the small blue print at #25 sold for about 264 dollars. I didn't win either of them as I thought they were overpriced at those amounts, but each to their own.

One of the problems with trying to buy these cream pots in the States is that people selling them here tend to over value them. for example, this one.....



....which are as common as dirt and sell for a few bucks in the UK. People selling them here will normally start at 25 to 35 dollars for them on eBay. It seems that they seem to think that because it's approx 100 years old that they're really rare...except they're not at all. Now there are some pots that serious collectors with serious money chase that can be as much as 5 or 6 or7,000 dollars. Those are obviously way out of my league so I collect at a level that I'm happy with.

Yes I've had clotted cream with strawberry jam on scones which is kind of a traditional snack in the south west of England. Very nice it is as well.

This is a pretty little pot which would look good on anyones breakfast table even today, let alone a hundred years ago....



That one went for more bucks than I could afford too.

[Fuzzy]

I forgot to drop this in..... Clotted cream and strawberry jam on scones. Yummy stuff.

[Ruth]

Very cool....I tried to look for some on ebay and didn't come up with anything....I even searched worldwide.  What do you type in when you search for them?
It looks like the clotted cream is not as solid as cream cheese.....and that looks like a biscuit here.....I know you all use the word biscuits for cookies over there, but now you have me wondering if that picture of the scone you posted is more like the sweeter scones that I am familiar with or if they tasted like the southern style biscuits that I am used to seeing served with gravy or instead of toast, with butter and jelly?  The biscuits I am used to are not sweet at all.  The scones I have had are only mildly sweet though.

[Fuzzy]

You're right Ms Ruth, they're sweet scones as opposed to southern style biscuits.

If you go to ebay UK and use the search term 'cream pot' sub category 'bottles and pots' somewhere on the left side of the page there's about 2 or 3 pages of them for sale. Nothing brilliant at the moment though, mostly common types.

But it's not just cream pots that's collected, if you ever spot one of these....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251207228788?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648

...on your travels grab it fast.

[Fuzzy]

silly me.... i should have posted this link to eBay UK cream pot pages....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Bottles-Pots-/29797/i.html?_nkw=cream%20pot&_sop=10

[Fuzzy]

And the story continues....

At that time, the adulteration of milk and cream by unscrupulous dealers was quite a common practice. Water was added to milk, skimmed and separated milk were mixed with whole milk and sold as fresh, cream was thickened with starch or gelatine and and coloured with egg yolk or saffron, and bicarbonate of soda and boracic acid were added as preservatives. These practises eventually led to government control and all additives were outlawed apart from Boric acid leading to cream pots eventually being printed with the words 'Preserved cream containing Boric acid not exceeding 'x' per cent'. This message on the pots gives an idea of age of the pot as these regulations were not enforced until the early 1900's. On the 1st of January of 1925 the regulations regarding additives in cream were revoked by the Public Health Dep't when the the use of Boron compounds as preservatives in cream was banned. This effectively killed the jar cream trade, so not many pots were produced beyond that date.

The regulations introduced in the early 1900's led to the addition of the small wording at the bottom of this pot and others of the same age...



To be cont'd with a potted (no pun intended) history of the manufacture of cream pots... Whoopee huh?

[Ruth]

Well I am excited.... must be getting older.....  I really do find these interesting.

[Fuzzy]

Well I am excited.... must be getting older.....  I really do find these interesting.

LOL.... Don't get the bug, Ruth. You'll end up as potty as I am about these little pieces of social history.

As well as being a look back in to history they're extremely decorative in the home and it maintains a link back to Britland for me at a level I can afford. Dez as well, as she spent a number of years over the pond many of the towns and places mentioned on the pots she has a memory of being in those places too.

Exciting? Well yes it can be especially when you're waiting for the mail to bring you your next package from overseas. I'm currently waiting for a package from over there containing these three beauties....



The two Brooklands pots will be a nice addition to this Brooklands, in a different style, that I already have....



Another thing that Dez likes about some of them is that they fit nicely with one of her collecting bugs which is blue and white ware. So this one appeals to the both of us on a couple of different levels....



As does this one....



And of course this one just blows us away....



The main problem with the last one is that it was dug up in bits and very badly put together by some idiot. Having said that, even in the condition it's in it sold for more than a thousand bucks on eBay. Add to that another 3 or 4 hundred to have it professionally restored and you soon realise that there is a very large collectors base out there who are very serious about their pots. IIRC with that particular pot there are less than ten of them recorded in collections in the whole wide world.