For weeks, the auctioneer had been touting the upcoming sale of salt & pepper shakers. So much so that even I was curious, and I’m not one to ogle over shakers. That’s my auction-buddy Janet.
The day finally came last week, and I went hunting for the shakers as soon as I arrived at the auction house. There were several trays of them – many of them in pairs, clean and neat – in a glass case and on a shelf against the wall. There were animals, souvenirs, Black Americana, mini kitchen and household wares and more, made of porcelain, plastic and ceramic.
There were about 24 trays in all with at least 10 pairs per tray. These were not the highly prized shakers with such names as Limoges, Royal Nippon, Royal Bayreuth and RS Prussia. These appeared to be the low-ends – flea-market buys or the kitschy types you pick up at souvenir shops on vacation that were made overseas.
In fact, Japan was one of the major mass producers of salt and pepper shakers by the 1940s, stamping them with the label “Occupied Japan.”
Over the years, shakers varied in both the materials they were made of and the designs on their exterior. From the clean and sanitary look of white milk glass to the bold colors of Fiestaware. Some bore the images of familiar characters or the advertising logos of companies.
Among the sweetest I saw on the web were two sets of shakers that were works of art: curvy and colorful shakers called Schmoo (or Shmoo, depending on what you read) by Eva Zeisel and the Holt Howard pixieware, which featured the head of an elf on the top.
Zeisel is an industrial designer from Hungary whom I had not heard of before but is quite famous in the industry. She is considered one of the premier ceramic designers of the last century, and her pieces are in the Museum of Modern Art. Her works, which include dinner ware, shakers, vases and more, are just beautiful, and all have her characteristic trademark curves. “I do curves because I’m curvy — meaning I am a little bit fat,” she said in an NPR interview in 2005.
Like any other collectibles, salt and pepper shakers have their own museum and clubs. The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum in Gatlinburg, TN, boasts of having 20,000 sets of shakers from around the world and the largest pepper mill collection. The museum was opened in 2001 by a woman who has been collecting them for 25 years.
The shakers at auction sold for what turned out to be great prices (which I learned after doing my research). The auctioneer sold them by the tray and the first bid won was for $37.50 a tray, then $30 a tray and then $25 a tray.
The biggest win may have gone to the auction-house regular who got about 15 trays for $12 each. Not a bad haul.
