Spice up your home with vintage salt-and-pepper shakers, like midcentury cats, ruby-red strawberries and themed state-by-state sets.
Vintage salt and pepper shakers are a small but charming way to infuse your kitchen with a little character. Just like your grandma’s vintage gelatin molds or your overflowing collection of coffee mugs, the right set (or, let’s be real, sets) of salt and pepper shakers can be a real conversation starter. They can match your everyday dishes, highlight the current holiday or show off your favorite animal or cartoon character.
Though small, salt and pepper shakers are a fun centerpiece, and the vintage ones hold a history we’ll never know. Who bought them and when and why? How many holiday dinners, family reunions, weddings or teas did they watch over? If you’re smart about perusing the kitchenware shelves at Goodwill or your local vintage store, keep an eye out for a set.
What makes a vintage salt and pepper shaker valuable?
Shakers in perfect condition are tough to locate. Even more so than vintage cookie jars, vintage salt and pepper shakers underwent daily use. And with two elements in each set, it was easy for at least one member of a pair to end up chipped or even lost. So finding a complete pair of the salt and pepper shakers you want in mint condition might be challenging.
Some salt and pepper sets, like the hand-painted porcelain Noritake clowns, were more like pieces of art than everyday kitchenware, and their prices reflect that. Others were simple ceramics, cranked out cheaply and quickly to serve a growing nation busy raising the Baby Boomers—those sets won’t cost as much. And some are sought after because of their rare or unusual subject matter.
When purchasing a vintage salt and pepper shaker set, keep an eye out for chips, cracks and hairline fractures. Turn them over and examine the opening where the spices were added. The stoppers might be brittle or even missing. Here are six styles of vintage sets you might spot at your local antiques shop or thrift store.
Salt and Pepper Shakers to Look For
Japanese Hanging Strawberry Shakers
One dazzling retro style of strawberry-shaped salt and pepper shakers, made in Japan, look almost like they could be a pair of dangling earrings. Made from ceramic or glass, they hang from a metal stand that may be shaped like a vine or tree. If strawberries aren’t your favorite fruit, I’ve seen a similar style with bunches of grapes. Make sure all the pieces, including the little strawberry tops that let them hang from the stand, are included when you make a purchase. That condition can help determine the price—eBay shows pairs that sell for about $100 or more with the stand, while they might go for under $20 with no stand.
Holt Howard Cozy Cats
Being the popular household pet that they are, cats have been the muse for many a kitchen artist. There are thousands of vintage cat S&P sets. Guidebooks even show sets with real fur—I personally wouldn’t want to risk that in my food! But the adorable kitty charmers from midcentury ceramicware company Holt Howard, which began producing its Cozy Cat series in 1958, could be a purr-fect fit for your collection. You might be able to scoop up a kitty salt-and-pepper set for around $30, but once they get their claws into you, you’ll soon learn there are coordinating ashtrays, sugar bowls, creamers and more, with prices that are all over the map depending on rarity and condition.
Holt Howard Owls
Whoooooo collects owl memorabilia? Like cats, owls, too, have their loyalists. If your grandma treasured a set of owl salt and pepper shakers, they were likely made by Holt Howard, just like the Cozy Cats. Holt Howard began making Christmas items in 1949, and its often cartoonish, whimsical housewares define MCM decor to many collectors. Though the company was founded in New York, some of its items were made in Japan and may be marked accordingly. Owls tend to sell cheaper than the Cozy Cats line, and eBay shows recent sales at around $13 a pair.
Parkcraft America State Sets
In 1949, Bob and Marianne Ahrold founded the Parkcraft Company in Iowa, and one of the company’s most treasured series was the America state series. Each set of shakers includes the outline of a US state and one item that’s associated with that state. Some of the pairs are very much of their time. Kentucky gets a moonshine jug, Missouri a mule, North Carolina a pack of cigarettes and Idaho a potato. My personal favorite is my home state of Minnesota, accompanied by a rustic canoe. There were only 48 states when the series started in 1957—Alaska and Hawaii joined the union two years later. A new series of state sets was made in 1968, but Alaska and its igloo, and Hawaii and its hula girl remain the rarest sets to collect. Still, a recent Hawaii pair sold for $45, and the Alaska pair seems to sell for about the same amount.
Noritake clowns
Send in the clowns. Not everyone is a fan of circus clowns and their painted faces, but in the world of salt and pepper shakers, clowns are classy. Unlike the cartoony Holt Howard cats and owls, the Noritake clown shakers look like they belong in a museum. They’re made of hand-painted porcelain, yet they shine with an art deco lusterware finish. Clowns may make people laugh, but there’s nothing funny about the prices: One pair on Etsy, complete with its own tray, was being offered at press time for $252, and eBay showed a sold pair that went for $270.
One-piece salt and pepper shakers
Most salt and pepper shaker sets have two pieces, which makes sense. But there’s an unusual variant, one-piece salt and pepper shakers, which were never as popular as the two-shaker sets. A one-piece shaker has two separate chambers inside it. One is for salt, one for pepper, and they never mix. The salt side can be identified because it has more holes, and when you want salt, you tip the shaker toward that side, and vice versa. Sometimes these led to creative and fun designs, like those with two birds, where one bird’s beak dispensed salt, the other, pepper. Long animals are a favorite, as is a hotel bellboy carrying two suitcases, one for each spice. Prices, materials and makers can vary—a vintage dachshund sold on eBay recently for just over $20.
Do you have any of these sets in your collection? Let us know in the comments below!
