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If you are looking to see how much your melmac is worth, you can read this post. I am sorry that I cannot answer all of your questions - but if you look hard enough on this blog, I think you will find most of your questions answered.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Boonton Boontonware Melmac Rare Orange Bowl

Boonton Melmac
Orange Melmac Bowl for sale @RetroChalet

Information Wanted. Have you seen this? 

Sometimes I see things and wonder how they are what they are, or why they are what they are.   Even I, after collecting so many years have no idea how this can be possible. 

It's no secret that this Boontonware melmac bowl's shape and thickness should actually date it to the 40's or 50's to the earlier lines of plain BOONTON (marked as such) used in restaurants and institutions, yet the design is slightly different. 

However, there is a hallmark was used for a short number of years "for industry standards" giving it an even smaller window of production.

The problem? The color.  This color technically should be later, perhaps even 60's.  There is evidence of this orange in some lines, mainly SOMERSET, but the items are not molded as thick, with as much melmac.  They are thin and not as bulky.

So it's a mystery, for sure.

boontonware melmac
Very odd coloring for such a thick Boontonware bowl.


So I ask you, why is the orange on this bowl?

It could be several reasons and perhaps we will never know why. 


  1. An employee could have made the bowl for himself or herself. 
  2. A customer wanted some bowls made and asked for test of the color. 
  3. Perhaps a line was made with this exact bowl, but if so where is it? 
  4. The factory was testing various colors to debut in a new "fall line". 
  5. It was something molded for samples to customers or employees. 
  6. It is a part of a short lived melmac set by Boonton we have not yet found.



What do you think? 

Stop by and let me know facebook.com/MelmacDinnerware


Thursday, January 5, 2012

Boonton New Jersey: Not Just Known for Iron Anymore

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what about a picture with words?

Optional styling on the early coffee-tea cups are hard to find. So are the non-swoopy cereal bowls, this lot available at RetroChalet.

I really think the best thing that came out of Boonton, New Jersey, was the melmac.  I remember driving there thinking I was going to some giant large industrial city, on a search to find the old Boontonware factory plant, and sights unseen. Before you knew it, I had drove right through the tiny town and clear on out to the other side.  If you blink, you may just, miss it.  Imagine all those dishes.......coming out of that tiny town.  Check out my other posts on Boontonware here.


Check out this cool link (note my little plastic man)