Egg cup

An egg cup, sometimes called egg server, is a container used for serving boiled eggs within their shell. Egg cups have an upwardly concave portion to hold the egg and often include a base to raise the egg retaining portion and give stability, informally known as footies. Other types include: no pedestal, just a cup known as "buckets" and egg-sized on one side and bigger on the other end known as "doubles". Egg cups can be made of china, pottery, wood, plastic, glass and various metals or bakerlite. Some are made of two materials (wood and ceramic).

The Egg cup is a collectible item. There are newsletters for egg cup collectors from "Eggcup Collectors' Corner" in the U.S. and, "Egg Cup International Club" in UK. There are also egg cup conventions for collectors in England. Collecting egg cups is called Pocillovy, deriving from the Latin pocillum for small cup and ovi for eggs.

History

Egg cups have been used since prehistoric times, with some of the earliest occurrence on Minoan Crete. In particular, archaeological recovery at the Bronze Age palace of Cretan Knossos reveals the presence of eggshell cup use as early as the 18th century BC.

Egg cups have many shapes and bear various designs. The early silver egg cup found in 74 BC in the ruins of Pompaii. In Europe, the egg cup was used since 15th century. It was then part of a breakfast buffet.

Translation of "Egg cup"

German: Eierbecher, Esperanto: Ovingo, Italian: Portauovo.