U.S. Army Medical Department Creamers and Butter Pats, Set of Four

A four-piece grouping of American institutional tableware: two individual creamers and two butter pats, each carrying the burgundy emblem of the United States Army Medical Department — a caduceus surrounded by the department's name — against an ivory-white ground. Two coordinating burgundy bands frame the butter pats.

The handleless creamers have compact, gently curved bodies with small pouring spouts and a subtle molded detail near the base. The butter pats, with raised rims and small proportions, complete a group unified by color and institutional identity rather than by a single manufacturer.

That's the detail worth noting: the backstamps trace to two different makers. One butter pat is marked Bailey-Walker, Bedford, Ohio, 1938; the other Shenango China, New Castle, Pennsylvania, “U.S. Army Medical Dept.,” 1941. Two companies, three years apart, supplying the same institutional identity — this is restaurantware as a documentary object, four pieces telling a small, specific piece of American military history.