Plaskon Color Samples

1953 Plaskon Melmac Samples from my Collection

The colors of the rainbow, are sure to brighten any day. I often think that choosing a color palette or to limit my collection seems unlikely. I am going for the sunny and bright look and have still yet to unpack my melmac from my move from Baltimore to West Virginia. I have downsized my space from a 4 bedroom Victorian style home to a 1 bedroom cabin. It seems unlikely I will ever get room for my melmac unless I build an addition. Also, the heat in the West Virginia summer is not ideal for any plastics collection. I have decided recently to get rid of my Fiesta (urgh, this is great in the microwave, oven, and I make the best casseroles and pies in it) to redoing my kitchen in Italian dinnerware.  I guess after time your tastes change and / or you get tired of the same old same old.

These are some plastic discs I acquired in my travels and are plastic Plaskon Melamine samples. If you note they are large discs about 6" around and flat, each labeled with the 1953 color name to them. They came in a box that says "House and Garden" and features the stacking colors you see in my banner.   Ironically many of these colors strike me as basic colors of the rainbow.

Note the Meladur seems to match in dark green, but not in yellow...

Not all melmac coloration is the same....for instance when I first started collecting I remember assembling a set of pink at the thrift store. I would pick up this pink cup or that pink bowl here and there in my travels. None of the pinks matched and I started to think I was crazy or that someone washed them in the dishwasher a bit much. Unfortunately, some were just a teeny tiny shade or hue off.   I later realized when in Syracuse studying Russel Wright that the plastic designers (and yes there were designers for the major melamine vintage lines) used to make custom colors, so their colors were just a bit off of the competitor. For instance Russel Wright used to add this or change that just to get that special turquoise color.  As you can see from the photo above, some of the Meladur (Lapcor and General American) samples match the 1953 House and Garden colors but some are just a bit off.

I suppose you need to look for the rainbow.

Vintage Rainbow Kitchen Set Salt Pepper Shakers Trivet Utensil Holder Toothpick or Creamer 6pc 1970s   $32 here at RetroChalet

Lapcor General American Meladur Custard Cups Melmac Samples Part One

Lapcor and General American Meladur Custard Cups

Recently I acquired a very rare set of Melmac Color chips. These most likely came on a ring and were shown to customers to choose common colors for their melmac.  Here is the set of 50. I love them so much!

There are 50 chips most likely color samples of popular blends on keyrings back in the day.

I spoke with fellow Plastics Researcher Christopher McPherson who runs the awesome Plastic Living website, who suggested I try to date the chips based on the color matching.  So , I pulled out some of my melmac (which now lays boxed up thanks to a multi-state move) and found these custard Cups.

Meladur Color Cups , Color Matching

More on Meladur Custard Cups

First let me indicate the custard cups are hard to find, and I have collected some with backstamps of General American circa 40's and later Lapcor. They are the line of Meladur, first created by Russel Wright for General American under the GATX Meladur Russel Wright label. However, I can never prove or disprove they were or weren't a Wright design. I saw some similar indication in Syracuse that may indicate this custard cup was thought of by Wright, yet the feet were designed differently.   It is my opinion the item was in the works but in the middle of contractual disputes and non-renewal, so the company nixed the feet and produced it anyhow.

1940's Blue Color is a Perfect Match to early 1940s Meladur color!

Not one I have NEVER found any signed Russel Wright and I feel they are an after-Wright creation. Why? The feet are not ribbed as his were. He created feet that were ridged for easier drying and stacking, which the design of the feet was later dropped when the line was sold without his name (after contract). After GATX finished contractual disputes, they sold the entire line with molds to Lapcor who continued to produce the line in many colors, some vibrant and lovely.

Nevertheless, I have collected them as a go-with and shown above are three original Russel Wright colors.    As you can see, two of the three match the color samples perfectly.  The blue tends to be melmac sample "BB171" and the pale yellow matches exact yet the code is scrubbed off and I will never know but appears to say "XX 103", of course the XX being letters I cannot make out .  The tan, or almond color is a hue off.

The tan sample matches close but not perfectly. 

So now I pull other colors to see if I can match. Here's what I end up with.  The tan above does not match exactly and is one slight hue off. However, with only a 50 chip keyring is it not possible that other colors existed on a master keyring full of hundreds of chips?

The dark green common on Meladur and Boonton does not match exactly but appears to be a hue off all the samples, black being shown in the center. 

My research notes in Syracuse indicate Wright's Meladur colors, he tried many and even put some pieces in the oven to see when they burnt and at what temperature, believe it or not.   Many color codes he copied down and tried to make custom colors.

(((However, some of the same colors on Meladur (dark green and also an earlier maroon) are also common on Early Bootonware. Surely discontinued due to major scratching visibility. )))

See all the greens, n a ring of 50 it's hard to find an exact match.

In conclusion, I cannot for certain date my color sample ring yet can say that it matches the early blue and yellow perfectly. These blues and yellows originally debuted in the 1940's on Meladur, Boonton and many other dishes. 

MY GUESS:  1950-1953

If I had to fathom a guess, based on my research, I would give it 1950-1956 possibly learning towards 1950-1953.  I would deduce this suggestion based on the fact that a) it's a 50 chip ring and not all samples wer included in the ring, because of lack of customer interest. Thereby elimination of the dark green and maroons (color scratching), and tan on it's way out (feedback circa 1946-1949).  Although this could certainly be a 1940s basic starter ring missing some colors, I would guess  by the looks of the pretty vibrant blues and yellows shown above, that the colors are circa 1950-1953, keeping some of the popular older colors but adding some new for the uptown housewife. 

What do you think? Leave a comment +Cindy Fahnestock-Schafer  or tweet me   twitter.com/iramency

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