A creamer is a small

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

jug A jug is a type of container commonly used to hold liquids. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and often a pouring lip. Jugs throughout history have been made of metal, and ceramic, or glass, and ...

designed for holding

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

to be served with

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

in the Western tradition. Creamers can be

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

, but also made of silver or other

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

s; a creamer is an obligatory part of a coffee or

tea set Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics and ...

, whether in silver or ceramics.

Cow creamers

Creamers in the shape of a

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

with an opening or lid on its back for filling, known as cow creamers, originated in Holland, but became very popular in England, first with Dutch imports, then from about 1740 in

saltglaze Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing pr ...

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refracto ...

from the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of cer ...

. English silverware examples are from about 1750; the Dutch immigrant

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

John Schuppe John Schuppe (''fl.'' 1753-73) was a Dutch silversmith working in London and noted for his humorous cow creamers (cream jugs). John Schuppe is first recorded in England on 28 June 1753 when his name was recorded as a largeworker of Little Deans ...

, who worked in London from 1753, produced little else, and his examples are among the finest. The competition between two collectors for an especially valuable silver cow creamer is a plot-line in

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

's novel ''

The Code of the Woosters ''The Code of the Woosters'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was previously serialised in ''The Sa ...

''. They have continued to be produced in both silver and ceramics. The

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free. One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum ...

has the Keiller collection of 667 ceramic cow-creamers. Cow creamjug, Walker Art Gallery.jpg, Ceramic cow creamer, 1820–40, "possibly

Cambrian Pottery The Cambrian Pottery was founded in 1764 by William Coles in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. In 1790, John Coles, son of the founder, went into partnership with George Haynes, who introduced new business strategies based on the ideas of Josiah ...

" German Cow creamer.jpg, Silver cow creamer from Germany by Jean L. Schlinghoff

Espresso brew pitcher

Small metal creamers may be used in making

espresso-based drinks Espresso (, ) is a coffee-brewing method of Italian origin, in which a small amount of nearly boiling water (about ) is forced under of pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso can be made with a wide variety of coffee beans and ...

– the espresso being brewed into the pitcher, which is then poured into the drink. In this context they are referred to as espresso brew pitchers, and also billed as "small creamers". Brew pitchers are most commonly , which is sufficient for any espresso other than a large (double or triple)

lungo Lungo (Italian for "long") is a coffee beverage made by using an espresso machine to make an Italian-style coffee – short black (a single espresso shot) with more water (generally twice as much), resulting in a larger coffee, a ''lungo''. A nor ...

, but pitchers may also be found in and even sizes. Espresso brew pitchers are particularly used for layered

latte macchiato __NOTOC__ Latte macchiato () is a coffee beverage. The name means stained or marked milk, which refers to the espresso stain on the milk used. It is a play on "Espresso macchiato". an espresso with a dollop or two of milk or cream. Related dri ...

s, which require careful pouring. In other drinks, an espresso cup or shot glass is a common alternative, which must be dumped rather than poured.

References

External links

* {{Cite web , url=http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=21249 , title=Cow Creamer , publisher=Staffordshire County Council , year=2003 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111020200024/http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=21249 , archivedate=2011-10-20 Teaware Silversmithing