Title
Early Glass Breast Pump Cups on Wooden Bases
Author
N/A
Image
Description
Matched pair of hand-blown glass breast collectors: each has a wide funnel (breast shield) and an integrated oval bulb reservoir positioned below/behind the shield to catch expressed breast milk. The hollow stem passes through the display base; historically, this stem connected to rubber tubing and a hand bulb that supplied intermittent suction. Milk drawn through the funnel drained by gravity into the attached glass bulb, which served as the collection chamber. Thick, slightly wavy glass with scattered air bubbles—typical of early 20th-century hospital/physician supply.
Condition
Good for age: light internal haze/residue in bulbs, fine scratches, no structural cracks noted. Wooden bases are for display only and show scuffs and edge wear.
Gallery
Historical context
Before sterile, detachable kits, many breast devices combined suction source + fixed glass reservoir. A squeeze bulb (or wall vacuum) created negative pressure via the stem; milk flowed into the attached glass bulb for later decanting. These were marketed to relieve engorgement and to collect milk for infant feeding—useful in theory, but difficult to sanitize in practice, which is why modular designs replaced them by the 1930s–40s.
Curious Facts, Ephemera, and Trivia
Early ads pitched these as “hygienic milk savers,” but the single-piece design trapped residue in the bulb.
Some kits offered cork stoppers for the bulbs so they could double as temporary storage flasks.
Instructions typically advised gentle, rhythmic squeezes of the hand bulb—over-pumping caused pain.
Excerpt
A neat idea with messy realities
Why it is in the Cabinet
Beautiful hand-blown glasswork that tells the truth about early maternal tech—innovative, earnest, and not quite there yet on hygiene.
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