Pass the Salt, Will Ya?

Behold the lowly salt and pepper shakers:  always there when you need them, and often in a decorative or entertaining shape.  Did you know that the salt shaker got its big start in 1911 after the Morton Salt company introduced an anti-caking agent (magnesium carbonate), which allowed the salt to flow freely out of a container?  Shakers received a second boost a decade later when, during the Depression, ceramics companies were looking for inexpensive items to sell, and decided that salt and pepper shakers were an item all homes needed and could afford.  Then came the 1950s and the American automobile culture, and the travel industry began offering shakers as souvenirs. 

 

 

Now, some folks call these dispensers “salt cellars,” but that’s not really right:  a “cellar” is a dish or a box that holds the salt, and with these devices, you use your fingers or a tiny spoon to serve the salt onto your food.  Of course, salt was purchased in block, or rock form in those days, and you had to chip it off and crush or grind it yourself.  Some early salt shakers were actually salt mills, used to grind the chunks, much as we see today. 

 

And long ago (in the latter half of the 1800s), shakers might have been called “spice box, dredge box, salt bottle, or condiment box” (from “All Shook Up – The History of the Salt Shaker” on the blog Pinch, Shake and Grind).  And like pretty much every object, the more ornate your shakers are, the more wealthy you are deemed to be.  The commoners had salt dishes and shakers made of pewter, horn, or wood, while the upper classes used ones crafted of silver.  King Charles I of England noted in his diary in 1625 that he saw a “salt made of gold, weighing 150 ounces and studded with sapphires, rubies, pearls and emeralds” (ibid).

If you would like to see a whole lot of shakers in one place, go down to Gatlinburg where you will find the Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers!  There, Andrea and Rolf Ludden have on display their collection of over 20,000 shakers.  And they have 20,000 more in a sister museum in Guadalest, Spain!  How would such a thing get started?  Well, according to the museum website, Andrea was looking for a good pepper mill, but couldn’t seem to find one that worked well, so as she would acquire one and subsequently discard it, she’d set it on a windowsill, along with a few salt shakers that were decorative.  People thought she had a collection, so they started giving shakers to her.  Then her kids started to scour flea markets for them, and the collection grew.  And since Andrea is an archaeologist, she became fascinated with the cultural aspect of the designs, and decided that a museum was in order so others could learn and enjoy.

 

According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine, if you have a set that’s labeled “Made in occupied Japan,” you have something rare, as World War II nearly halted production of consumer ceramics there, displacing Japan as the number-one producer of shakers in the world during the 1920s through the 1940s (see Smithsonian.com, January 23, 2012 article).

And what is the most-collected shaker set in the world?  The Hummel figures, made by the renowned German pottery maker Goebel.  Their Hummel shakers were introduced in 1935.

So pass the salt, will ya?