SOCIAL MEDIA

Sign up to follow this blog:

Sweet Goodness! You've Visited My Blog Over 1.2 Million Times and Counting! Thanks!

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.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Bolero Therm-o-Ware , Reinecke, Cornish, Sun Frost and the Monopoly on Thermal Plastics

BOLERO
Bolero Thermo Bowls from RetroChalet.

I just love these old Bolero thermal bowls. The set above, just sold, and this is what they told me, "My grandparents had these when I was a child and I absolutely loved them. I did a random search of retro plastic bowls with feet and found your set. I am so excited...oddly enough these bowls bring back such great memories of my grandparents and my grandmother's fresh from the garden cooking. I can't thank you enough!"
These available at Junk and Howe.

Ahhhhhh, the allure of old plastics!  So cute and space-agey for the 1950's (these fun colors) and 1960's (olive greens, golden yellow pieces) are still quite easy to find.  Therm-o-ware's "Double walled insulation" was supposed to keep your hot things hot and cold things cold.  I love the idea of the tripod feet so as not to sweat on your table this way. Accompaniments include small tumblers, tall tumblers, mugs, regular bowls,  insulated pitchers, and ice buckets--both small and large ones.  However, it all started with an industrial designer......
Courtesy: VintageBitsandPieces.
Mugs available at VintageBitsandPieces.

Bolero short ice bucket from VintageChics.

REINECKE

Reinecke Bowls look the same, by Proven Products, Evanstan Illinois. See them here.

The design of this tripod bowl is by Industrial Designer Jean Otis Reinecke. (male, read about him here.) The line carrying his last name was marked Proven Products Inc, Evanston, Illinois. I found them in a 1957 book stating they used extrusion plastic methods and made a lot of advertising and promotional plastics for companies. Proven Products quite possibly molded the bowls but  Reinecke and Associates indeed designed them. I found a reference as early as 1953, J.O. Reinecke was originally based in Chicago. He also developed the 3M tape dispenser in addition to a huge resume of work.

In a 1954 book  --> Society of Plastics Engineers  to which J.O. Reinecke also belonged, it the following was written about the thermal wares...."Conceived to meet the demand of the housewife for distinctly "high-styled" household objects, the thermo-bowls also meet the manufacturer's requirement for mass production at moderate cost."   

Reinecke Backstamp, courtesy of Doll Food


Instead of white insides like Bolero, the ones marked Reinecke had black bottoms with bright and vivid colors inside. These were indeed my favorite. The plastic was harder and more durable in my opinion than Bolero bowls.  I also saw the addition of a large serving bowl under the Reinecke line,  which I have never seemed to find in Bolero ware.  If it exists in Bolero, it's sure hard to find.  The large bowl is large enough to hold oranges, apples and fruits, obviously designed for the large salad!
Doll Food offers this great big Reinecke bowl for a bargain price!

So it is safe to assume both Bolero and Reinecke were indeed designed by Reinecke but selling at the same time under different names.  Then we have more deviations...take Cornish for example...

CORNISH
Marked Cornish Proven Products...above and below by Vintage Bits and Pieces.
Yet another style but same theory - thermal ware, and also marked Proven Products.  It is uncertain if Reinecke designed these, or if they were another deviation of the original thermoware line. I didn't like these as much, they had a more ribbed look, and the outsides were supposed to look "stoneware-ish" actually off white with flecks of grey.  You can tell this is the transition into the 1960's....the colors on the inside were lovely, but these designs just really didn't appeal to me.  I did find a set of mugs once, ironically their packaging was more lovely then the products. The mugs came in a clear plastic package of 8, and had a rope carrying strap. Over time the plastic used for the packaging had cracked, but it was something to see just how they would have sold way back when.

OLYMPIAN


OldBoldReadyToBeSold has this Olympian Pitcher for sale.


Just like a never-ending tale such as the recreation every decade of Madonna we see the same in thermal ware --this too just kept reinventing itself. In the 1970's we had Olympian ware, in olive green, mustard yellow, and red oranges. I think I'm having flashbacks of my childhood. My mother loved these colors (yeeeccchhhh.)
Cups available at Holly's Vintage.





PROVEN PRODUCTS may have been a subsidiary of Federal Housewares of Chicago that produced a lot of kitchen plastics such as strainers and measuring cups.

Proven Products bowls by OldTymeStore, their ribbing reminds me of Cornish ware.

Little Jack Horner chip-dip trays, by Reinecke/Proven Products, at Perfect Pie Lady.
It's safe to assume that in some way Bolero, Cornish, Olympian and Sun Frost thermal ware can be tied to one in the the same company, quite possible some original designs by Reinecke and changed over time...but who really knows? We know and can see that Bolero tripod bowls are that of Reinecke (same mold and design) but the question remains why wasn't his name on the back of them for maximum publicity? If we get into marketing strategies however, we may realize that some "unmarked" Reinecke products may have been sold at smaller five and dime stores and secondary stores for a lesser price, having the Reinecke name would mean premium prices and essentially both similiar and one in the same. This way, one could conquer two markets for two prices, with the same product. As for Cornish and Olympia, wouldn't that be something if all four lines were indeed a huge monopoly on thermal ware!





'Vintage Therm-o-ware : Thermal Ware Decades of Plastics in Chicago Land' by RetroChalet

Bolero , Reinecke, Olympian , Sun Frost


Vintage Bolero Therm-O-Ware ...
$23.00

Vintage REINECKE Thermo-O-Bo...
$20.00

Vintage Mustard Colored Olym...
$14.99

Bolero Therm O Ware 8 Tumble...
$37.50

Vintage Sunfrost Therm O War...
$10.00

10 vintage bolero thermo-war...
$16.00

Vintage Reinecke Therm-o-Bow...
$12.00

Pair of Olympian Therm-o-war...
$3.00

Vintage Bolero Therm-o-Ware ...
$18.00

Vintage Bolero Pink Plastic ...
$24.00

Vintage Tumblers Bolero Ther...
$8.00

SALE Marked 53% Off Vintage ...
$9.00

Vintage Olympian Therm O War...
$18.50

Vintage 1960 Yellow and Oran...
$10.00

Vintage Insulated Pitchers ...
$15.14

Set of 6 Vintage Bolero Tumb...
$8.00

PLEA from Author: 
Thanks for reading my plastics blog. This site is free for plastic lovers all over only because of the sponsors who pay me to keep the blog running. I hope you allow me to keep it free by visiting my sponsors:
This new Design Blog
Big Fat Daddy's (Free Recipes and Grilling Tips, please stop by to say hello!)



Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Rise and Fall of Spaulding Ware Melmac Dinnerware in Chicago Land

The Dilemma:
Hello, what's this? Spaulding Ware Creamer in Color-Flyte Colors?

It doesn't matter how long you collect something there will sooner or later be things that pop up that mystify you or are unexplainable. Imagine my surprise when I find this creamer marked Spaulding Ware, Chicago, but is a dead ringer for the designer  Kaye Lamoyne's "Glow Copper" color of the Branchell Color-Flyte line.
Mottling in Color-flyte colors as shown on the Branchell History Website by Dennis Teepe.
So my question was which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Relatively little is known about Spaulding Ware company history, I looked in some old Modern Plastics Encyclopedias and didn't see any Spaulding listed in Chicago in the forties.  I then found them listed in a 1953 Registered Corporations book of Illinois, however under "A-A Housewares, Inc." At the same address was the offices of  Spaulding at 3520 N Spaulding Avenue, Chicago 18 Illinois wherein respective representatives were  Harry Wohl and Dorothy Pollenz.
The original building where Spaulding Ware offices' were still stands in Chicago. 

Spaulding Ware Galore as offered in dadadish!

Just when I thought this "glow copper" creamer dilemma could be an uncommon fluke, melmac collector Ken Whittington of North Caorlina tells me there were other colors done in the other Color-Flyte colors as well! I was baffled!  

What is the Connection?
Sadly I cannot form any connection what so ever between Branchell and Spaulding, no matter how much sleuthing I do. Branchell, according to Dennis Teepe's Branchell History site lists them in business circa 1952-1958 at which time it was sold to Lenox.  Branchell's factories in St. Louis and Puerto Rico do not explain how during the same era the colors of the Color-Flyte designs would have gone to Spaulding. I believe Spaulding's dinnerware was produced elsewhere in Chicago, so definitely NOT in St. Louis!

There are of course only four possibilities that I deduce: 

1)  "Maybe Laymoyne worked for Spaulding."    I don't think so. Certainly he was under contract at the time and to leak a top secret formula would have been a huge no-no with legal ramifications.

2) "Maybe Spaulding had the color first and Laymoyne bought it."   Doubtful, he was a great designer.

3) "Perhaps Spaulding acquired it after Branchell's demise."  This would have meant the dishes had to be produced circa 1958 when Branchell closed.  Spaulding would have had a four year window to do so, from 1958 to 1961 because they were still offering melmac in 1961 as listed in a Supermarket Merchandising Magazine under "Melco-Ware".

4)  "Perhaps they duplicated it and used it without permission with no one ever catching them."   It wouldn't be the first time, I've seen examples of  Residential by Russel Wright and Daileyware using the same formula, but these were also produced in the same factory.  Being that ColorFlyte was produced in Missouri and Puerto Rico, this didn't seem a viable solution.

A full set of hard to find Spaulding Ware recently sold on Etsy at PomDecor's shop. 

If you look closely at the photo above the creamer and sugar would indeed be a more rigid feel.   I always thought that some of the creamer and sugars like the styles above were indeed polystyrene. We will find out soon, that Spaulding was using "less melamine" in some of their pieces which would explain why the pieces in the same set may feel or look differently (and perhaps not wear as well.)


The Answers, or Not?
The more I read on Spauldingware, the more I think the latter two possibilities may indeed apply to the latter years window.  In this May 1956 ad, Life Magazine shows Capri (regular color palette) and Decorated (patterns) as the two "styles."  They were also showing "Melco-Ware" at the Housewares Show in Chicago according to Modern Plastics Magazine. "Melcoware" is also traced back to their office address.  I can only assume that Melco-Ware stands for (Melamine - CoPolymer - Dinnerware). 

Ironically, in June 1960, the Spaulding Corporation (then containing the names of Gilbert B. Fern and the same Harry Wohl and Dorothy Pollenz from above) were being charged both as a whole and individually by the Federal Trade Commission. Essentially scamming the public as melamine co polymer did not exist, and it was in their print ads, guarantees, and advertising. By December the same year they were in huge trouble.
Guess I'll never know why or how these Spaulding Ware Spice Containers came to be.

It's no wonder by the early 60's they were gone. No doubt legal fees and loss of production time would drive them into their ultimate demise.   ~Poof, just like that~  We may never know the beginnings or the end of this company, or half the inner workings, but I can't help to find it odd that they would go to a housewares show and brag and advertise their wares as Melamine Co polymer only to become quickly indited. Did a competitor get a whiff of this infraction and turn them in?  Was this a sneaky way to avoid the inflating costs of melamine?  Did they cross the line too many times and operate shadily before (hence eluding to the Colorflyte dilemma)?

I'd like to think the wide world of melmac production full of mobsters and loan sharks, because , after all, this was ChicagolandI guess we'll never know.
Back in the day in Chicagoland, Postcards Available at VintagePlum's shop.

Have information on Spaulding?  Write me!
Love me?  Link me!