there is an urban legend that the champagne ‘coupe’ (above right) was modeled on marie antoinette‘s breast, however the idea of breast-shaped dishware is not without support: in the queen’s dairy at rambouillet was a ceramic tea service which included four milk cups (of course) rumored to be modeled on her breasts (above left). unfortunately the bowls outlived their molds and we cannot be certain of whose breasts they were modeled after. nevertheless the nipple hanging down – which requires the support of three goat-headed struts – makes reference to the traditional greek mastos cup (from mastos = breast, udder) itself modeled on a breast (bottom left). while modeling a milk jug on a mammary may seem overly literal, you would drink from it in an utterly abstract fashion – unlike the prosthetic verisimilitude of a modern mastos cup, the rubber-nipple baby bottle (bottom right).
