help for dummy

Looks like an older model aluminum drink container used by caterers to hold cold drinks at a client's party site. Beer for bar fests, non carbonated juices, water, that kind of thing. They are mostly made of plastic now with push button spouts. A useful and functional vintage item, guesstimate value of about $30-$40 at a general sale, possibly more at a specialty one. Enjoy it, it's a nice useful piece of Functiques (functional antiques)!

You sure it's not a cream separator? My mom had one like that. Was a crock, tho.

You sure it's not a cream separator? My mom had one like that. Was a crock, tho.

Just in case I hadn't mentioned it, I am not a collector of this kind of material so may be wrong. However, it looks more like a carboy to me. No doubt it can also be used as a cream separator, but the cream is usually considered to be more fragile and desirable. They usually try and recover that first so skim off the top, I believe. This container is solid so that they wouldn't be able to see the cream while draining the milk off or even how much has formed. I would think that this would make when and how much to recover difficult. Also with the neck at the top it narrows the recovery surface area. I am not saying it can't be used for that purpose, and I am a 'city boy' so my farm experience is limited. I suppose that the narrowing of the neck would be useful to concentrate the cream, but the separators I have seen all had larger tops (more like buckets) so that it was easy to get in and scoop out the cream. When I look at milk bottles that have the creamer tops, you notice a very distinct shape to recover the material. It's like a bulb on top with a very narrow neck between the bottle and the bulb to prevent mixing once separated. That would be a more efficient way of recovery and I would anticipate a similar arrangement for a more industrial version. I do agree that it is for drinking fluid dispensing though. I was thinking more towards an industrial setting such as a soup kitchen/military BBQ setting, that kind of thing. Did you find any markings on it?