Collecting Butter Molds

I have been collecting butter molds and prints for almost 40 years now. Building a large collection, I have been fortunate enough to amass a lot of my collection from dealers on my East Expo Antique Show Field. I feel it is especially important when acquiring prints and molds to see and feel them in person at booths or stores, to ensure the quality of the piece. As I fine-tune my collection, my focus these days is animals, minis, and the rare lollipops. Great prints and molds can range from a crude folk art style to delicate carvings that feature scales, hair, or features of the subject. Geometric shapes, leaves, plants, fruit, and initials can also be included in these more intricate carvings. I continually marvel at the time, skill, and patience that it must have taken to create these utilitarian, yet detailed, marketing pieces of art. 

One of the first dealers I was fortunate enough to have known when I first started collecting butter molds and prints was from Maine; he taught and guided me on my journey to the collection I have today. The first reference book that the dealer recommended was a print and mold book written by John Kindig, which is like the Bible for mold and print collectors. Not only did that dealer from Maine become a mentor to my mold and print collection, but we also established a great friendship, and I was lucky enough to have him and his wife as vendors on my field until their retirement. I bought a large amount of molds from them over the years; one of my last purchases from them was my first lollipop. That couple also masterminded one of my wife’s best Christmas presents ever to me, a beautiful carved sheep mold. 

One of the best stories that the couple shared with me was what they dubbed the “Thanksgiving Debacle.” They had tried to use some of their mini molds to print butter pats for Thanksgiving one year, and failed epically. Their best guess was that the butter they were trying to use was just so different than the butter that the molds were originally meant for, or that there was some secret to using the molds successfully. Either way, it at least made for a good story. 

  While making your own butter prints may not be in the cards, I would recommend collecting butter molds and prints. There are many reasonably priced prints and molds out there to get any new collector started, and they are easy to display, coming in all shapes and sizes. My collection has expanded and branched out to other butter and dairy-related items; butter churns, cream separators, paddles, strainers, butter color boxes and jugs, butter and dairy ephemera, among other things. Collecting butter molds and prints can serve as a hobby within itself, or can be a great start to branch off from in the future.     

 Just a small piece of my collection, on display in my kitchen.