The World is an Eggcup
By Irving Scott

Whilst we mere mortals are anticipating arriving in our own second Millennium of personal experience, eggcups are about to enter their third such time zone. Humble they may be to some, but eggcups offer a vast canvas on which all our cultures and social histories are displayed in all their idiosyncratic miniature detail. At least two thousand years old as a domestic culinary artifact, eggcups have been made in every conceivable material from gold via pewter, tin and brass through alloys, horn and wood to china, porcelain, glass and plastic.

Finely decorated examples in classic series from the great china and porcelain houses of the world stand side by side in the eggcup world with Disney and other Hollywood characters and with a huge array of souvenir versions from every imaginable marketing campaign and corner of the globe.

As in all collecting and as with all collections, unless you’ve been there you can’t claim to have ‘the knowledge’. Maureen Ballantyne has certainly been there, got the collection, and whilst not having the video or the tee-shirt she has certainly written the book. In the rolling English countryside in a small hamlet off the road to York (in Yorkshire all roads lead to York) is a quite astonishing collection of eggcups. In all styles and designs in most materials available and representing museum quality examples of Lustre-ware, Figurals, Faces, Commemoratives and Cartoons, Maureen’s collection of more than 2000 eggcups is quite simply majestic in scale and scope.

Collecting with discerning passion for the best part of a quarter of a century, Maureen has by hard work and interested research and questioning become a lexicon of eggcup lore. Our visit was filled, and our interest fuelled, by a virtual torrent of facts, figures, descriptions and stories of the world of eggcups. Every available piece of wall space was taken up by purpose-built display shelves with the regimented ranks of the collection.

Soon to be published by Maureen is what she hopes will be a definitive book on eggcups containing over 1000 full-colour illustrations of the key elements in the world of eggcups. Covering examples of eggcups from 1780 to the present day this, 140-page book will we feel sure become a ‘standard’ reference work and an essential part of every eggcup collectors’ library. Largely based on Maureen’s own collection the various styles and designs in the book are carefully described and beautifully illustrated. Taking in the whole of the egg ‘empire’, eggcup collecting includes the full range of egg-timers, egg-baskets and even eggcup ‘whistles’, many of which feature in the Ballantyne collection.

Delighting in her own enthusiasm, Maureen is a classic specialist collector, whose accidental interest was spurred into avid activity, when given a couple of eggcups as a present by her husband, Ian. From such small beginnings a lifetime interest has grown, and Maureen now answers queries and questions from around the eggcup collectors’ world.

Indeed the UK Eggcup Collectors’ Club is another keenly involved and interested field for Maureen. Part of her decision to invest the time and expense in publishing her eggcup book was stimulated by her wish to establish a benchmark reference work for new collectors as well as long established ones. As readers can judge from the illustration reproduced here, there is a whole lot more to breakfastware than plates and saucers. Eggcups are now a serious focus of interest, and with prices at auction now reaching up to £580 for a pair of Laurel and Hardy examples, competition for classic pieces can only grow.

Article and image courtesy of ‘Antiques Diary’ magazine.