Arrowhead Brookpark Melmac Galore

Look at this huge Arrowhead Brookpark Dish Set on Etsy!

If you are thinking this looks just like Brookpark's Modern Design, you are right. Pieces are marked marked Ever Wear Arrowhead Pattern Brook Park Modern Design. Joan Luntz of International Molding was the designer making Brookpark's Modern Design line, and the budget line called  Arrowhead EverWare . As you can see  most are mix and match with colors and square styles! This set is being offered by CraftySara for $68.  There's a lot of melmac here.  What a cool deal.

Gaiety by Joan Luntz Brookpark Arrowhead

Gaiety Colors and Pieces...unmarked for International Molding by Joan Luntz.

Unmarked and lovely is the Gaiety line from International Molding. A budget line , this was often featured in dime stores and grocery stores. It is unmarked but surely designed by Joan Luntz, who designed almost every melmac line the company made including Brookpark and Arrowhead.

Key colors include white with grey speckles, turquoise with white speckles, orange with white speckles and yellow with white speckles.

Gravy boats and funky in design courtesy, Retro Chalet. The same boat mold were used for Brookpark and Arrowhead lines.

It is still easy to find these pieces and assemble a set, though I think the gravy boats, tab handled cereal bowls, butter dishes and lids to the sugar bowls are getting harder and harder to find! Although the divided casserole dish is common, the open-smaller style is not.

Works of art.

These are still somewhat easy to find, but slightly smaller and open bowls are not.

Though I have seen black with white speckles and pink with white speckles in same molds, (as well as solid pale pastels like pink and blue), surely this was not named "Gaiety" and quite possibly named something else. Companies back then had a good way of marketing like products made from same molds but changing the colors, just look at Colorflyte and Royale lines by Branchell!!

Pink and black bliss, is this called Gaiety too? Courtesy: RetroChalet

Melmac Morphed: The Divided Grill Plate

Courtesy: OldBoldReadytobeSold on Etsy

Ah, yessssss.........the melmac grill plate. Perhaps one of the dinosaurs in melmac history.  When melamine was just emerging for dish use, the divided grill plate or compartmental tray was used early on in mess halls, cafeterias, and hospitals.  Although it still has the same "industrial" look to it finding good examples that aren't all scratched up make them one of melmac's rarities.By the mid 1950's many companies had the grill plate as part of their melmac lines.  

Arrowhead divided grill plates, $38 for the stack at OldBoldReadytobeSold on Etsy.

 Edward Don and Company were making compartmentalized plates and selling them to the restaurant industry. Russel Wright's grill plate made in the Meladur line was quickly absorbed by General American and sold outright to cafeterias, hospitals and institutions. Mallory Randall was making grill plates in their Malloware line.  Boonton Molding Company was also cornering the market, offering a more "chunky" version, chock full of melmac!

Boonton divided grill plates are chunky and heavy @ RetroChalet.

From a distance, they looked exactly like their china or heavy duty ceramic cousins often used in diners and roadside cafe's.  Not often bought by the consumer, these bulky plastic models were mainly used for industrial use.   It wasn't long before most top popular lines were merging them into their catalog.

We can't forget about Texasware!  These only $25 from AuntSistersPicks on Etsy. PMC, their molder, also offered them in their DallasWare line.

MORPHING...

During the same time, however, similiar or morphed variations thereof would emerge that would indeed appeal to the modern housewife. Take for instance,  some form of space age plastic fondue dishes like the ones below.  Perhaps not melmac, but close...and a must for entertaining!

Set, $19, TatterandFray

What about picnic sets? They were the rage.  Often sold in camping and travel magazines, one would use these not only for picnics but for camping or RV use. Picnic sets applied the same principal of a cool divided dish or tray .  They are still readily found and some are as pristine as they were in the 40's and 50's.  Most are polystryene or thinner plastic than melamine, but still adorable!

Retro compartmentalized lunch plates, $12, by JumpShipZon.

Regaline picnic set, $14, CashmereJellybean

Of course over time, many shapes, styles, and plastics emerged as divided dinnerware solutions. Perhaps not directly related to the grill plate, except by association or particle composition only, but cool nonetheless.

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PiratesB00ty offers this pristine picnic set, Fremware, $16

Prolon lunch trays, $28, by Especial Ethel