Vintage Color-Flyte Melmac Dinnerware Ads

1950's Ad for Color-Flyte by Branchell was found on Etsy at thevintageshop

Kaye Lamoyne was the designer on Branchell's melamine lines, shown here Color-Flyte and Royale. Both similar in design but different colors kept the lines distinguishable. The ad above shows how you could sign up and get items for only $1!  Below, the elegance of Royale by Branchell is showcased, with the hard-to-find silverware.

Hard to find silverware is shown in this ad on Etsy's thevintageshop.

The Elegance of Branchell! This stack a mixed bag $35 at LisasRetroStyle2

For more information on this company, visit Dennis' great history site here: 

http://www.notagaingraphics.com/Branchell/

Color-Flyte Branchell Collection of Melmac

SugarCookieLady on Etsy is cleaning out her melmac above. Wowsy! Just look at all this Colorflyte melmac dinnerware you can buy for $99.00. Sure is great for a starter collection - keep the pieces you need and sell off the rest to recoup some of your expenses.  I am sure some of you may think this is a high price to pay for plastic used melamine dishes, but not so, Color-Flyte by Branchell is still extremely collectible.  I remember fifteen years back a set of Branchell Colorflyte in the original box sold for $250-$300, almost four to six times the original store price in 1955!

If you are lucky enough to piece together a set by thrifting or flea marketing, there is fun in that too, but some people need to start a bulk collection somewhere and it seems SugarCookieLady has some other collections too. 

Branchell melamine dinnerware was designed by Kaye Lamoyne (a guy, go figure with a name like Kaye) and is still pretty much indicative of retro 1950's design.  It is somewhat easier to assemble a complete set because it was popular. Most was used by housewives and so finding it in great unused condition will be a challenge. It sure can be fun collecting the original colors shown here on the Branchell Melmac information site of glade green, mist grey, glow copper and spray lime. Some of the colors in this set look like the Branchell's Royale line which is super cool to collect to and in the same overall design, just a different color palette.

In my opinion, platters sugars, creamers,  and serving dishes are still easy to find but salad tongs and salt and peppers are getting harder and and harder to find. You can see a photo of the mist grey ones here in this picture, and their original Color-Flyte sales boxes peeking from the back.   Super cool!

Original colorflyte salt and pepper boxes are in the back and shown at RetroChalet on Etsy.

Collecting melmac is fun.  You may be interested in How to Clean Your Melmac Dishes here.

Branchell Colorflyte and Kaye Lamoyne Originals

By the Wayside has these great Colorflyte bowls for sale!

Deenis Teepe (Rhode Island) has done a ton of research on The Branchell Company and Colorflyte melamine dinnerware. His site, all about The Branchell Company has great 100% free information and photos.  It was in St. Louis, Missouri!  I really do hope you will visit it and drop him a line sometime, and tell him how much you appreciate him keeping the information out there, sort of a free encyclopedia on Branchell!

What you may not know, is that Dennis is instrumental in my love for plastics. I remember in the early days corresponding with him, as he was a wealth of knowledge on plastics. Not to mention he would outbid me on most everything I wanted on ebay.  Come to find out, he used to live right by me --within a few miles. What were the odds of that, considering he could have lived anywhere else in the whole USA?

Ashtrays, getting harder to find,  by GrandmasVintageAttic  on Etsy.

We ended up getting together to talk and see plastics.We decided not to bid against each other and it made acquiring some pieces we liked a heck of a lot cheaper.  I had a room for plastics that was so-so, but Dennis topped the cake by having a whole basement done in 1950's retro kitsch! Complete with an old dinette, old kitchen cabinets, all filled with vintage plastics. From old toy cars to melamine in the boxes,  it was truly amazing.  I had never seen anyone's collection so large and so vast.  Dennis alsohad a love for vintage toys like Puzzles and they were cool too.

Rare Kaye LaMoyne Originals, Kaye was the designer of the Branchell Melmac lines....these offered by JazzyMarie

Now I had been collecting many patterns, but leaning towards the Home Decorators Flowertime because I liked Russel Wright's designs but I had not seen the half of them. Dennis started trading me his Russel Wright overstock for some of my pieces he needed.  I then decided to trade all my other lines just to obtain Russel Wright.I suppose he's really the one responsible for making me the Russel Wright guru I am today. Had I never met Dennis, I probably would not have found all that Russel Wright had to offer and learned so much.  So today, out of my graphics studio, I made a great little icon to link his site too, as I was tired of the old one.

So, I hope you will go to his site, and find out all about Branchell, Colorflyte, and Kaye Lamoyne Originals!!!

Branchell Melmac History and Factory Tour: Kaye Lamoyne, Colorflyte, Royale and Aztec

What a steal!  This trio of Kaye Lamoyne designed ashtrays are only $15 at The Weathered Bungalow on Etsy.    

Kaye Lamoyne was the designer for The Branchell Company--you may know them from the wonderful lines such as  Colorflyte and Royale Melmac Dinnerware!

Colorflyte:

Lovely Colorflyte set by AERetroRescue on Etsy, $58.

Royale:

Branchell Royale Colors!  This available at EnergyForTheSoul on Etsy!

Aztec:

Not much is said about Aztec dinneware, but Branchell did produce this.  More often than not, found in salad sets in browns/confetti melamine though actual dinnerware was produced.

This large salad bowl is available at Funkomavintage on Etsy.

Facts and Factory Information:
In 1958 it was written in a Chilton Jeweler's circular that Branchell was one of the largest dinnerware producers of it's day, having been officially founded in 1946** (by Ernest E. Hellmich).   The "Hellmich Manufacturing Company" was listed at 1610 Hampton Street St. Louis, Missouri in the November 1956 Life Magazine. **According to this very reputable Branchell website, this is not the date that the Branchell Company (4 partners) was actually incorporated.

There were two factory sites that may have produced the dinnerware. In Modern Plastics, 1955, there is talk of Hellmich Manufacturing company at Bayamon in Puerto Rico making melamine tableware. In the USA, Edna Campos Gravenhorst wrote in her book, "Southwest Garden" that the factory at 3176 Brannon Avenue aka the CD Midland Building had been where the Mundet Cork Company and Branchell Company was located.  She has photographs in her book.

The defunct site that Ms. Gravenhorst talks about is here:

From Google Maps.

By 1958 Lenox had taken over the Branchell company that according to Chemical Week had a "combined sales volume of over $14 million per year. "

By 1961 the company was still labeling products "Branchell -Aztec" with a mailing address of 4417 Oleatha Avenue in St. Louis.

Further Reading:
For more information on Branchell or Kaye Lamoyne, visit this great site here by Dennis Teepe.

Melmac Galore

Melmac Dinnerware, piled in boxes, makes for a good retirement plan someday. Back before no one wanted Melmac collectors were stashing it in their storage units and containers. Some of these boxes were given to me by Derek Schultz, a fellow collector I once knew, now deceased. He was attempting to collect it to write a Melmac book, as were several people I know.  These samples were collected from all over North America on outings.  Do you see any Melmac or melamine that you collect in these boxes?

Much older Melmac contains knife marks and needs a good cleaning.  I like to use a blend of comet paste and hot water and a toothbrush for scrubbing the dirt out of knife marks on most light surfaces.  Melmac was labeled as indestructible but over time it did lose it's sheen thanks to washing in hot dishwashers.

Some have yucky sticker residue on them.  Peanut butter helps remove the sticker good.

Rare Watertown Butter dishes in Olive green were found. Was this a mistake or did Watertown Ware come out with this fugly green?  Sorry grandma, I hated the 70's.

So where can you find all this Melmac for sale? RetroChalet.etsy.com look for it soon! I had went through and sorted it on the driveway once. The neighbors looked a bit puzzled. I put it in order by sets, and ended up donating a plethora of badly scratched examples to Goodwill. 

Derek Schultz, owned the collection, and I tried selling some of the best pieces and sending his wife some of the profits.  Unfortunately, sending melmac via the USPS turned out to be not profitable when postal rates soared and much has to be packed well in large oversize boxes. 

So some still remains, sitting in a dark and dusty place, perhaps, until the time is right.  

FURTHER READING:

You may wish to read more about Watertown Ware here on the Watertown Page!

OTHER PROJECTS I AM WORKING ON: 

White Witch Magazine is my new project.  It's for modern day nature lovers, and good witches! Hope you will check it out! 

This page last updated November 16, 2024.