Melmac Morphed: The Divided Grill Plate

Courtesy: OldBoldReadytobeSold on Etsy

Ah, yessssss.........the melmac grill plate. Perhaps one of the dinosaurs in melmac history.  When melamine was just emerging for dish use, the divided grill plate or compartmental tray was used early on in mess halls, cafeterias, and hospitals.  Although it still has the same "industrial" look to it finding good examples that aren't all scratched up make them one of melmac's rarities.By the mid 1950's many companies had the grill plate as part of their melmac lines.  

Arrowhead divided grill plates, $38 for the stack at OldBoldReadytobeSold on Etsy.

 Edward Don and Company were making compartmentalized plates and selling them to the restaurant industry. Russel Wright's grill plate made in the Meladur line was quickly absorbed by General American and sold outright to cafeterias, hospitals and institutions. Mallory Randall was making grill plates in their Malloware line.  Boonton Molding Company was also cornering the market, offering a more "chunky" version, chock full of melmac!

Boonton divided grill plates are chunky and heavy @ RetroChalet.

From a distance, they looked exactly like their china or heavy duty ceramic cousins often used in diners and roadside cafe's.  Not often bought by the consumer, these bulky plastic models were mainly used for industrial use.   It wasn't long before most top popular lines were merging them into their catalog.

We can't forget about Texasware!  These only $25 from AuntSistersPicks on Etsy. PMC, their molder, also offered them in their DallasWare line.

MORPHING...

During the same time, however, similiar or morphed variations thereof would emerge that would indeed appeal to the modern housewife. Take for instance,  some form of space age plastic fondue dishes like the ones below.  Perhaps not melmac, but close...and a must for entertaining!

Set, $19, TatterandFray

What about picnic sets? They were the rage.  Often sold in camping and travel magazines, one would use these not only for picnics but for camping or RV use. Picnic sets applied the same principal of a cool divided dish or tray .  They are still readily found and some are as pristine as they were in the 40's and 50's.  Most are polystryene or thinner plastic than melamine, but still adorable!

Retro compartmentalized lunch plates, $12, by JumpShipZon.

Regaline picnic set, $14, CashmereJellybean

Of course over time, many shapes, styles, and plastics emerged as divided dinnerware solutions. Perhaps not directly related to the grill plate, except by association or particle composition only, but cool nonetheless.

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PiratesB00ty offers this pristine picnic set, Fremware, $16

Prolon lunch trays, $28, by Especial Ethel

Russel Wright Residential Rarity : Two Tone Melmac

Pic: Retro Chalet Shop.

I've seen some oddities along the way in my Russel Wright collecting and research. The two tone sets have to be the strangest and the most exciting.  Needless to say, they do exist, and are quite rate. What they are is actually different than anything I've seen.  There are blues/whites, yellow/whites, and pinks/whites that I've seen. All are marked Residential. 

The issue here is that some pieces are solid, but the plates, saucers, and platters actually have one color molded on the bottom, and another color molded onto the top. You have to do a double take to look very closely to make sure this is not a factory mishap. Looking on the edge you will see that indeed, care was taken to form a color on top, and color on the bottom!  More proof that Wright, if experimenting with this sort of theme, was ahead of his time !

Two colors, chalk on top blue on base. Amazing!

Of course the colors I have found haven't really matched that of the existing Residential or Home Decorator lines, so they must have been their own creation.  There are some solid blue and pink pieces that are a hue off of the Home Decorators colors that these DO match, however oddly those blues and pinks were produced in solids also. So I assume, you could get your blue straight up, or on the rocks, with the chalky impact above.  Honestly, I am unsure if they were a test run of created as a special order for someone. Examples I own look mint and first runs, no imperfections which mean the factory must have perfected this process. 

There is no proof in Syracuse that Wright was experimenting with such colors, nor that such colors were approved at Northern Industrial Chemical Company, who molded this line for him.  There is evidence however, of Wright's ongoing experimentation with the plastics in general. Early examples housed there show him putting metallic pieces into the melmac, experimentating with mottled colors , and actually baking melmac (probably in his own oven) and putting notes on the plates to see at what temperature they would burn or melt.  Given that, I think Wright was experimenting with the two tone, but perhaps such a pain for the factory to make, that he didn't put it into mass production. In 20 years of collecting, I've only acquired a handful of examples.

Purple TexasWare Melmac

A steal at $57, here, as purple is hard to find!

Source: etsy.com via Cindy on Pinterest

Ranger-Ware a Buffalo New York Mystery or Ohio Plastic Line ?

What the heck is this?

Just when I thought I've seen it all, I dig through Derek's boxes of melmac (read about it here) and find something I've never seen or heard of in 20+ years of collecting plastics.  These crazy bowls are marked Ranger-Ware . It says they are by Buffalo Molded Plastics, Inc.  So I looked in some old books and found mention of a 1959 article in a Rohm & Haas reporter that discusses a salad set.


Here is the review from 1959, "The manufacturer's suggested retail price— less than nine dollars— is surprisingly low in view of the superior appearance and performance of the set. The bowls and serving pieces are molded for the Ranger Ware Division of Ranger-Rand Inc."    So I went further sleuthing and found small mention of Ranger Rand housed at 342 Madison Avenue in New York City circa 1960 thanks to a Society of Plastics Engineers Book.  Who were they? I don't know. Why did they have salad bowls molded for them in their name? Who knows. Why haven't I ever seen these before?

These aren't melmac or melamine, they are instead a stranger type plastic, like that David Douglas stuff.  What's really very strange is the fact the bases are painted yellow on what looks like metal base, but the plastic is actually silver plastic underneath the yellow paint.

What were they thinking? Paint does not hold to plastic!

Why on earth would a company mold silver plastic then paint it yellow? It would have looked so modern in plain silver. Now, I am quite sure it's factory paint so the whole thing eludes me. The kicker here is was Buffalo Molded Plastics in Buffalo, NY or Ohio? Currently, this listing of Buffalo Molded Plastics is in Ohio, so is this somehow related to the makers of these bowls?

Feels like: David Douglas wares, these trays offered at School of Vintage

So many mysteries, so little time. Anyone out there remember these bowls? Do tell!