diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpConnection.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpConnection.java
index 82ea5f02b0d..bfeb16afa0e 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpConnection.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpConnection.java
@@ -110,6 +110,15 @@ public abstract class HttpConnection implements Connection
         // Add content headers
         if (content != null)
         {
+            if (content instanceof ContentProvider.Typed)
+            {
+                if (!headers.containsKey(HttpHeader.CONTENT_TYPE.asString()))
+                {
+                    String contentType = ((ContentProvider.Typed)content).getContentType();
+                    if (contentType != null)
+                        headers.put(HttpHeader.CONTENT_TYPE, contentType);
+                }
+            }
             long contentLength = content.getLength();
             if (contentLength >= 0)
             {
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpRequest.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpRequest.java
index 5f2590c6f78..9ec21ca7da8 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpRequest.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/HttpRequest.java
@@ -549,9 +549,7 @@ public class HttpRequest implements Request
     @Override
     public Request file(Path file, String contentType) throws IOException
     {
-        if (contentType != null)
-            header(HttpHeader.CONTENT_TYPE, contentType);
-        return content(new PathContentProvider(file));
+        return content(new PathContentProvider(contentType, file));
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/api/ContentProvider.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/api/ContentProvider.java
index f8bcd4642d7..371b22bd821 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/api/ContentProvider.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/api/ContentProvider.java
@@ -28,17 +28,15 @@ import org.eclipse.jetty.client.util.PathContentProvider;
 
 /**
  * {@link ContentProvider} provides a source of request content.
- * <p />
+ * <p/>
  * Implementations should return an {@link Iterator} over the request content.
  * If the request content comes from a source that needs to be closed (for
  * example, an {@link InputStream}), then the iterator implementation class
  * must implement {@link Closeable} and will be closed when the request is
  * completed (either successfully or failed).
- * <p />
+ * <p/>
  * Applications should rely on utility classes such as {@link ByteBufferContentProvider}
  * or {@link PathContentProvider}.
- * <p />
- *
  */
 public interface ContentProvider extends Iterable<ByteBuffer>
 {
@@ -46,4 +44,17 @@ public interface ContentProvider extends Iterable<ByteBuffer>
      * @return the content length, if known, or -1 if the content length is unknown
      */
     long getLength();
+
+    /**
+     * An extension of {@link ContentProvider} that provides a content type string
+     * to be used as a {@code Content-Type} HTTP header in requests.
+     */
+    public interface Typed extends ContentProvider
+    {
+        /**
+         * @return the content type string such as "application/octet-stream" or
+         * "application/json;charset=UTF8", or null if no content type must be set
+         */
+        public String getContentType();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/AbstractTypedContentProvider.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/AbstractTypedContentProvider.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..39da5a0ee1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/AbstractTypedContentProvider.java
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+//
+//  ========================================================================
+//  Copyright (c) 1995-2014 Mort Bay Consulting Pty. Ltd.
+//  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+//  All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+//  are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
+//  and Apache License v2.0 which accompanies this distribution.
+//
+//      The Eclipse Public License is available at
+//      http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+//
+//      The Apache License v2.0 is available at
+//      http://www.opensource.org/licenses/apache2.0.php
+//
+//  You may elect to redistribute this code under either of these licenses.
+//  ========================================================================
+//
+
+package org.eclipse.jetty.client.util;
+
+import org.eclipse.jetty.client.api.ContentProvider;
+
+public abstract class AbstractTypedContentProvider implements ContentProvider.Typed
+{
+    private final String contentType;
+
+    protected AbstractTypedContentProvider(String contentType)
+    {
+        this.contentType = contentType;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public String getContentType()
+    {
+        return contentType;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/ByteBufferContentProvider.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/ByteBufferContentProvider.java
index dcf0022fde6..e8a695f0d63 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/ByteBufferContentProvider.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/ByteBufferContentProvider.java
@@ -31,13 +31,19 @@ import org.eclipse.jetty.client.api.ContentProvider;
  * and each invocation of the {@link #iterator()} method returns a {@link ByteBuffer#slice() slice}
  * of the original {@link ByteBuffer}.
  */
-public class ByteBufferContentProvider implements ContentProvider
+public class ByteBufferContentProvider extends AbstractTypedContentProvider
 {
     private final ByteBuffer[] buffers;
     private final int length;
 
     public ByteBufferContentProvider(ByteBuffer... buffers)
     {
+        this("application/octet-stream", buffers);
+    }
+
+    public ByteBufferContentProvider(String contentType, ByteBuffer... buffers)
+    {
+        super(contentType);
         this.buffers = buffers;
         int length = 0;
         for (ByteBuffer buffer : buffers)
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/BytesContentProvider.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/BytesContentProvider.java
index dae7c2ef666..7b356ef1a63 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/BytesContentProvider.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/BytesContentProvider.java
@@ -27,13 +27,19 @@ import org.eclipse.jetty.client.api.ContentProvider;
 /**
  * A {@link ContentProvider} for byte arrays.
  */
-public class BytesContentProvider implements ContentProvider
+public class BytesContentProvider extends AbstractTypedContentProvider
 {
     private final byte[][] bytes;
     private final long length;
 
     public BytesContentProvider(byte[]... bytes)
     {
+        this("application/octet-stream", bytes);
+    }
+
+    public BytesContentProvider(String contentType, byte[]... bytes)
+    {
+        super(contentType);
         this.bytes = bytes;
         long length = 0;
         for (byte[] buffer : bytes)
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/PathContentProvider.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/PathContentProvider.java
index de79b973727..676c7916091 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/PathContentProvider.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/PathContentProvider.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ import org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.Logger;
  * It is possible to specify, at the constructor, a buffer size used to read content from the
  * stream, by default 4096 bytes.
  */
-public class PathContentProvider implements ContentProvider
+public class PathContentProvider extends AbstractTypedContentProvider
 {
     private static final Logger LOG = Log.getLogger(PathContentProvider.class);
 
@@ -55,6 +55,17 @@ public class PathContentProvider implements ContentProvider
 
     public PathContentProvider(Path filePath, int bufferSize) throws IOException
     {
+        this("application/octet-stream", filePath, bufferSize);
+    }
+
+    public PathContentProvider(String contentType, Path filePath) throws IOException
+    {
+        this(contentType, filePath, 4096);
+    }
+
+    public PathContentProvider(String contentType, Path filePath, int bufferSize) throws IOException
+    {
+        super(contentType);
         if (!Files.isRegularFile(filePath))
             throw new NoSuchFileException(filePath.toString());
         if (!Files.isReadable(filePath))
diff --git a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/StringContentProvider.java b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/StringContentProvider.java
index 1f8a83eb4b6..7475c3febf7 100644
--- a/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/StringContentProvider.java
+++ b/jetty-client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/client/util/StringContentProvider.java
@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@ public class StringContentProvider extends BytesContentProvider
 
     public StringContentProvider(String content, Charset charset)
     {
-        super(content.getBytes(charset));
+        this("text/plain;charset=" + charset.name(), content, charset);
+    }
+
+    public StringContentProvider(String contentType, String content, Charset charset)
+    {
+        super(contentType, content.getBytes(charset));
     }
 }