Other Lidded Cups

Pots de Creme Nots

We want to show you examples of cups that are frequently confused with pot de creme cups. There simply is not a lot of history available about porcelain objects to always determine their specific role as part of the dining room place setting. Given that, sometimes it simply not clear what the function of the object may be.

The cup shown on the left is a tea cup with a lid. The lid helps to keep the tea warm. These cups are typically larger than a pot de creme cup, holding at least 6 ounces rather than 3 ounces which is the average pot de creme capacity.

Porringers

A porringer is a small, shallow bowl, with a lid and a short handle. The original use for this was to serve porridge. Without going into an inordinate amount of detail, porridge is a term use to describe a number of cooked grains, vegetables, or pulses. The most common use of the word refers to hot oatmeal cereal. Porridge descends from "pottage", a sort of "water pudding" eaten by the English laborers in the 18th century. We show an example of a beautiful Dresden porringer below. Porringers are also commonly seen fashioned from silver or pottery.
Dresden porringer. Photo by: keystrokes

Marmite Cups

A marmite is a tall cooking pot with straight sides that comes from France. It is used for cooking soups and stews. The small version, referred to as a "petites marmites" is what we commonly see confused as a pot de creme cup. The little vessel is normally used to serve soup. This is an example of small marmite pots:
French marmite cups

Pate Pots

Made by Apilco. Given their straight sides, no handles and overall utilitarian appearance these little pots are probably used to store confit, pate, or cheese. Apilco currently makes a pot they sell as a pot de creme which has small "lions head" handles, similar in shape to the marmite cups shown above. The little tureen is more intended for soups.

Sake or Tea

We are not experts at Asian pieces but our best guess here is that these are either sake or tea cups, but most likely tea cups given the size and the cover. The cups measure 3 1/2" high x 2" wide.