Cream Top Spoon.

[Peter Bleiberg]

Interestingly the spoon wasn't used to "dip" the cream out of the bottle. The cream would be in the bulb area of the cream top milk bottle. The spoon would be put into the bottle to create a seal between the cream and milk. Holding the spoon in place with your finger you would pour out the cream leaving the milk in the bottle. I can imagine this process would occasionally make a mess.

Many cream top bottles had images on the back to demonstrate the proper technique for holding the spoon so that only the cream would pour off. This picture shows three examples.

 

[ROBBYBOBBY64]

Many cream top bottles had images on the back to demonstrate the proper technique for holding the spoon so that only the cream would pour off. This picture shows three examples.

Wow! Cool Acl's. When did the spoons first appear? Those bottle must be early if they have directions. Thanks for the reply and picture.
ROBBYBOBBY64.

 

[Peter Bleiberg]

Wow! Cool Acl's. When did the spoons first appear? Those bottle must be early if they have directions. Thanks for the reply and picture.
ROBBYBOBBY64.

The spoon was patented in 1925, shortly before the bottle design was patented. Pyro bottles were introduced around 1933, and the ones in the pictures are from the late 30s/early 40s.

The Cream Top Company (in Albany, NY) would typically license the use of their patent to only one dairy in a community, so any dairy that arranged to use cream top bottles had a competitive advantage over its local rivals. This led to imitators (such as modern top bottles, baby tops, and cop the cream) that could achieve the same cream separating function while not infringing on the cream top patent.

 

[ROBBYBOBBY64]

Very good info, thanks for the reply.
ROBBYBOBBY64.