Vintage Butter Churns
A butter churn is a container or machine in which cream or milk is agitated to make butter. Milk or cream was placed into the vessel and then stirred, beaten, or otherwise agitated (as by a plunging or revolving dasher) in order to separate the oily globules from the other parts, and obtain butter. Butter churns were made from wood, crockery, earthenware and glass.
Dazey butter churns are among the most popular churns with collectors today. The Dazey Churn & Manufacturing Company was one of the most prolific makers of butter churns and almost all of their churns are easily identified by the Dazey name embossed on the glass jars. In the early 1920’s Dazey claimed their factory was able to produce 2,000 butter churns a day. In 1915 Dazey claimed it had 250,000 butter churns in use, by 1923 they boasted of two million satisfied users and by 1936 the number increased to three million. That is a lot of churns and the company made churns for another two decades after that.
The downside of this is that Dazey butter churns are being reproduced currently. Buyers must be very careful to make sure that they distinguish between antique churns and modern reproductions. Dazey never made a butter churn smaller than one quart; smaller sizes would be reproductions. Another difference is in the wood handles. Often on reproduction churns they are shorter than the originals and held on to the crank arm with a threaded bolt rather than a peened rivet. The wood paddles are often not made of maple but rather a wood with a much more distinct grain. The metal tops on the reproductions will be distressed or acid washed to look old but this will look different than an old metal top that has been aged for years. Most old churns will have some wear on the bottom corners of the glass jar.
 | US $300.00 End Date: Saturday Sep-04-2010 9:32:00 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $300.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $75.00 End Date: Saturday Sep-04-2010 11:35:34 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $75.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
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 | US $135.20 End Date: Saturday Sep-04-2010 16:05:38 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $135.20 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
One will also come across many butter churns that have Dazey jars but the tops will be other brands such as Sears or Wards. These churns were not sold this way originally but they probably were often used to churn butter. The reason lies in the marketing strategies used by these companies. Dazey sold its butter churns through hardware stores while Sears and Wards sold directly to the customer through the mail. Often when a person was buying a new churn they were willing to wait to receive it in order to save money. However when the jar broke it was a different story. They needed the churn and could not wait for a replacement jar to arrive in the mail. Then it was much quicker to go down to the local hardware store and buy a replacement Dazey jar. Since most of the churn companies used a common thread on the jars, the lids would interchange. This is one reason why there are so many butter churns where the top and jar did not originally come together.
Butter churns played a big part in early rural family homes from the turn of the century and until after World War II. By 1950, the making of butter was taken over by the large dairy companies. The advent of electricity in rural America was instrumental in the demise of home made butter. Butter churns have now became highly collectible.
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