Four & Twenty Blackbirds Volume 2 (Pie Birds)

This book, the second volume by Linda Fields, is a guide to Pie Birds from pre-1940s to the 90s, featuring American and foreign made Pie Birds both marked and unmarked, identified and unidentified.

A Pie Bird is a hollow china or ceramic figure, most having arches and ranging in size from 3 to 5 inches. They have a vent hole close to the top of the figure. The arch of the bottom provides a place for the juice of the pie to bubble up into the pie bird while baking.

Pie birds are baked in pies to vent the steam and support the crust. They keep the pie from boiling over onto the bottom of your oven. They also prevent the crust from becoming soggy. Pie birds were originally shaped like inverted funnels, but even though most are bird shaped, they do come in other figural shapes.

If this is your field of interest, this is your book! This author is the only person (we know of) who has written a book on the topic exclusively.