A cooperage is a workshop where the cooper makes wooden tubs, barrels or casks. But also buckets, cheese moulds, dishes, milk and beer jugs, tubs and bacon tubs, and churns. The former kitchen equipment came partly from the cooper.

The invention of making a barrel from one to two tapered planks comes from the Celtic peoples who lived between the Peel and the Rhine before the Common Era. Until the advent of zinc, willow twigs (osier wood) were used to make the hoops.

After 1900, the cooper’s utensils were gradually replaced by zinc and enameled metal utensils, which were much more practical. Milk in a wooden bucket sours almost immediately, especially in summer. Zinc and enameled utensils are lightweight and easier to keep clean.

The milk jug with a measurement inside was completely new. After that, the cooper almost exclusively made beer barrels and, on the coast, barrels for fishing. In the meantime, zinc and enamel have been replaced by plastic in the kitchen. The cooper has also disappeared from the scene, fish and beer barrels are now often made of metal.