The Earilest Egg Cup

The egg cups continued to rise in popularity throughout Europe. It is not until the Victorian era that one finds egg cups mass marketed and regularly offered with dinnerware services. Companies, like Wedgwood and Haviland, produced egg cups and decorated them in the styles of their best selling china patterns. Also, during this period, it was fashionable to sell egg cups in sets if 6, 8, or 10 with a matching tray and spoon collection. Today, such collections are extremely rare and difficult to find.

At the turn of the century, the modern home began to take shape. A marriage of classical forms and modern concepts gave rise to the Art Deco period of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Designers like Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and the Bauhaus School of Berlin, Germany revolutionized the look and feel of home. New designs, colors, shapes, and pattern ideas gave rise to the popularity of the egg cup. Other designers, in attempt to be more avant-garde than the art decoists, began producing egg cups with aphorisms printed on them. Many egg cups from the art deco period have sayings like, “Morning Fresh” and “An egg a day…” inscribed on them.

The earilest egg cup was found in the ruins of

Pompeii in 74 B.C. It was preserved under the lava of Mount Vesuvios after it erupted. Other early occurances of egg cups were in Turkish mosacis and on Minoan Crete.

Later egg cups were not used after the fall of many classic civilizations.