Mum’s gift sparked collection

Johnny Green’s mother gave him an egg cup for Easter 1939.

The cup was decorated with small yellow chickens. When his mother died two years later, the 11-year-old was put into an orphanage, taking the egg cup with him as his only possession. ‘‘I carried that around with me everywhere and it was the only memory I had of my mother.’’

Green, now 88, has since collected more than 9000 cups over 58 years.

‘‘I’m egg cup crazy, definitely.’’ However, the egg cup his mother gave him was stolen while on display about a decade ago.

Green said he hoped to one day find it again. It had his initials on the bottom.

He started collecting egg cups in 1960, when he migrated to New Zealand after living in England and going to war with the British Army.

Green saw an egg cup similar to the one his mother gave him in a secondhand store in Point Chevalier in Auckland.

With that purchase, his egg-centric obsession began.

When he first started collecting cups Green would visit the same shops on a regular basis.

People never remembered his name, instead calling him ‘‘the egg cup man’’.

He continued to collect two to three cups each week, buying them online and scouting out secondhand and antique shops. The cups normally cost from $5 to $10. Green’s favourite egg cup is his Snow White and the seven dwarfs collection – with multiple sets. And does this man even like eggs? Yes, he said, with his favourite being boiled eggs and toasted soldiers.

‘‘Every time I eat one it reminds me of my mum.’’

About 125 of Green’s egg cups are currently on display at Te Toi Uku Crown Lynn and Clayworks Museum in New Lynn until August 31.