Collector’s cabinet brims with egg cups

Emmy Woods is a pocillovist. No, really. That’s what she is.

Woods’ hobby is collecting egg cups, also known as pocillovy. And she has quite a collection.

Close to 1,200 egg cups, of all colors and styles, line the shelves of a custom built cabinet in her home.

When she was 12 years old, Woods’ grandmother died and Woods inherited more than 150 egg cups from her grandmother’s collection.

The cups were wrapped in newspaper and put away until Woods had a place to display them.

“When my husband and I bought our first house and I had a place to display them above the cabinets I unwrapped them,” Woods said. “I noticed the date on the newspaper was 10 years to the day that they had been wrapped up.”

Woods began to look for cups to add to her grandmother’s collection and soon friends and family were in on the hunt.

“Whenever friends and relatives found them at yard sales, antique shops or on their travels,” Woods said. “They would buy them for me.”

Online shopping added a new dimension to the search. And to the numbers.

“When e-Bay came along I was hooked, but now I have become more selective and only buy certain ones that I’m looking for,” she said.

The egg cups that Woods was looking for were hard to find.

“It took me three to four years to get the whole collection of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” she said.

Woods doesn’t use her cups frequently but she does loan them out on occasion.

“A friend of mine had a brunch for a group of women and wanted to use some of them, so I brought over several different kinds to use,” Woods said. “I think I have just about every style and material that has been made.”

Egg cups in Woods’ collection include examples made from ceramic, wood, silver, glass and plastic.

“It is hard to say which one is my favorite, but the one on the top of the list is the Medium green harlequin from Fiesta Ware because it is so rare,” Woods said. “And it is one of the 166 originals from my Grandmother.”

The egg cups are arranged in the wide cabinet for more than decorative reasons.

“When we had this house built I had the cabinet custom-made to display them and so I wouldn’t have to clean them.”

With more than 1,000 cups around her, Woods is still searching for one more.

“I’m looking for an egg cup from the Davenport Hotel,” she said “Because I think my grandfather was the barber there.”