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!
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| 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.
