How, where and when did the use of egg cups originate?

Answer

Hi Jaklien,

Egg cups were once egg cups.

Special crockery to keep an egg upright (or just flat) while eating was already used in Classical Antiquity. Minoan miniature cups were found at Knossos, on a mosaic in Antioch dating from 40 BC. an egg meal is depicted including egg cups and spoons, and a silver egg cup with accompanying spoon was found in Pompeii. The special crockery became rarer for a while, but from the 15th century it made a return, initially in the higher classes.

Fun fact: a collector of egg cups is a pocillovist(-e).

• Sinclair Hood et Piet de Jong, ‘A Late Minoan III ‘Kitchen’ at Makritikhos (Knossos) (Knossos Survey 90)’ in The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 53/54, 1958/1959, pp. 182-193
• Javad Hashemi, The Joy of Collecting Egg Cups, 1998.
• Christian Hörter & Edeltraud Hörter, Eierbecher. Streifzüge durch ein Kapitel Esskultur in Deutschland. Handbook and catalog with über 1200 abgebildeten Eierbechern. Berta-Verlag, Weilheim 2004.
• Joelle Grandvoinnet, Les Coquietiers. Identification, provenances, formes, matières. Editions Sudarenes, 2012.