Original Packaging Ups Melmac Value but Don't Ask Me What It's Worth

Credit: AmandasTresors offers this texasware item mint in package cost $225

Update:  The Item Sold within 48 hours of me posting it and networking it. Congrats to the lucky collector who has this great item in their stash now!

Here's some information you can use.  I hope you find it helpful!  Readers may get upset that I don't answer emails about the value of their melmac. Let me explain why. I'm not an appraiser LOL. 

When I started the blog, I didn't anticipate the amount of exposure it would get, I was simply writing about something I loved and passing the time.  I share FREE information to the reader based on my expertise and collecting over the past 3 decades.  I'm glad you landed here, and I'm glad your reading. I don't get paid to write, so it is just a hobby for me. 

It got a little crazy after a million people landed here, which I am really wowed by to this day, some of them started to think I just did nothing but appraise plastics. Now I get 50-200 emails weekly asking me questions on melmac and sadly I am just a girl with a life and family a job and can't possibly respond or answer them all even as much as I would like to talk about melmac. There will be and there has been months of inactivity based on the fact I run a full time  bbq business with my husband, that has nothing to do with plastic. 

Not just that I'm a much too busy girl, but the value is subjective. Let me explain. 

Since I collected Russel Wright, back then, I would pay TOP DOLLAR for something to complete my collection in mint shape. Yes, he was a great designer, and yes the pieces were hard to find; however; that doesn't mean what I paid is technically worth that, because other examples may be found for less.  That doesn't mean you would consider paying that. Or the next guy. So on, and so forth. My friends still refuse to pay top dollar for plastic, because they claim "it's only plastic" and swear examples are out there to be found for less. 

So in fact, the value of melmac is subjective based on what's trending, what condition, what markings, what colors,  who's collecting, who wants it, and if this particular style was featured on some hip and trendy magazine cover or tv show. 

I have written a helpful article on What is My Melmac Worth that you can read. 

Also, part of the reason I don't answer all those emails is because part of the thrill of collecting melmac is the hunt to find your pattern name or style, which I'll write more about later.  

 Today however, I wanted to explain that packaging certainly ups the value of the item.  The reason is simple, back in the day melmac wasn't cheap, in fact it was sometimes as pricey as china. 

Housewives bought the melmac to use, not to covet like we today do as collectors.  Often times the original packaging got discarded or lost. Many times melmac came in display boxes and those are worth their weight in gold to collectors.  

Today I found this item on Etsy.   In this case, I ask you, the reader, would you pay the seller's asking price for the Texasware listed here in this blog post? I found it on Etsy and to be honest, I'm not a Texasware Collector, but it seems rare to have this type of sleeve in existence.  Perhaps if I was a texasware collector, I'd want this example for my collection, granted I get the three bowls too, so maybe it's not so pricey as one may think.  I guess we will know, how long it takes to sell, after posted here. 

Too much, not enough, or just right? You be the judge. You may also like this information I recorded on my podcast about texasware: 

Coronado Melmac by Miramar of California

Coronado Melamine Dinnerware in Montego Pattern Courtesy of WildRosePrimitives on Etsy.

It's very interesting what old items may surface like this later model set of melmac manufactured by Miramar of California (now closed.)  The set is called Coronado and is in those tacky 60's-70's colors we used to have in our 1973 kitchen.  The key here is that old boxes like this can certainly give us clues to what was happening in those days. Perhaps if you look closely at the box above you will see, the cups are called "thermoplastic."  Is this new term supposed to scare us, or put us in awe? Whatever the case this set has been preserved as if it was on the original store shelves just waiting to be had.

Courtesy: WildRosePrimitives on Etsy, $46.00

 Clues also tell us if you notice there's a two year guarantee against breakage, wherein some of the older melamine companies would give "lifetime" replacements or even a five or ten year guuarantee. Does this mean during this time melamine dinnerware production was unstable, or the company just didn't know if it would be around more than two years?  Quite honestly I believe the mixture of melamine they were using in their dishes were just a crappier blend, Cheaper powders mean skimpier amounts of melamine and more crappy fillers. The melamine of the late 60's and 70's was not anything like the original quality-checked melmac from Cyanamid or the melamine sold during those days. Back then, dishes of the 1950's which were thick and made to withstand everything stating "unbreakable" features.  Quite honestly by the time of this product most melamine was made thinner, less quality, and selling for a lot less in the five and dime stores than when originally rolled out.


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Further Reading Related to this Melamine Set: 


If you are interested you can read more posts about Miramar Melamineor see the Miramar Factory Tour page. 
You may also like the Care and Cleaning of your Melmac Dinnerware article on Squidoo!

Vintage Melamine Dinnerware Value

Author's sandwich looks so much tastier on a vintage melmac plate.

Vintage Melamine Dishes and Dinnerware

Wait! Before you toss out those old plastic dishes, did you know they may be extremely collectible? Truth be told there's a whole world of melamine and melmac dish collectors out there. Perhaps it's the fact those funny old plastic dishes bring back a happier time in life --- the fab 1950's, or lunch at granny's house.  For me, I remember having those olive green and gold dishes in Mom's kitchen and though the color grossed me out, it brought back a time when she would make me after school snacks of apples and cheese. 

Millions of melamine and melmac dishes were made and sold from the 1940's to the 1970's (even from the 1980's until now) but the ones made in the USA and Canada are sought after these days. Now just to clear things up properly, most all these old plastic dishes were made from melamine, but American Cyanamid called theirs "melmac" due to their own copyright/trademark.  Sadly most people call all old plastic dishes melmac,  but really they aren't so worthy of the name unless the compound was made by American Cyanamid.  Were the compounds identically the same? We would have to save that for the scientists to answer but I can tell you that most melamine powder companies were constantly trying to improve their formulations.  "Unbreakable Guaranteed 2 Years" went to "5 years" went to "Unbreakable Lifetime Replacement".  Later in the 60's melamine powders were so expensive that I believe companies started cutting corners in their additives, because a lot of dishes from the 60's to the 80's were thinner, not as well made and would shatter or chipped when dropped.

Truth be told, melmac dishes were said to be unbreakable but would burn easily if sat too close to the stove, and would scratch when cutting with heavy knives. Even though over time the material was said to become more durable, heavy knives will scratch and wear down the surfaces.  So, if you have gouged up burnt up melmac, better to use for garden decorations! Plates look fun and lovely as bird feeders (mount a cup and saucer on a stick) or use the plates to line your garden.

Now, if you have a set where some pieces are in good condition, perhaps with only light stains or light scratches they may be worth salvaging for several reasons.  Read the Care and Cleaning section here!

First off, they are perfectly safe to use in your kitchen as long as you aren't microwaving them.  Why go spend a fortune in Target or Walmart buying the new made-in-china versions when you have authentic vintage melamine?

Secondly, your dishes may be sought after for those who are trying to complete a set.  For instance, those wanting to assemble a set just like grandma had, may gladly give you a few bucks at a flea market, on craigslist or ebay or Etsy as your pieces or partial set may help them complete theirs.

The downfall to selling online (outside of your local area) is that the dishes are somewhat heavy to ship, and your best bet will be a flat rate shipping box or UPS.

Some manufacturers command more money than others, this would be the ones that were made by famous designers. For instance, not every company had a designer on staff so the company would just use decals or inlays and mass produce funny designs.

However, some companies paid high end industrial designers, now famous for their work such as Russel Wright (for Northern), Joan Luntz (for Brookpark), Jon Hedu (for Watertown), or Raymond Loewy (designing for Lucent) for example.  These designs, are now more valuable to those who may collect mid century modern, or melmac.

Now you may not know whether looking at your old melmac dishes just what they are, so you should start by doing a search on the web and finding out just what you have. It may be fun to realize that set you acquired some time back may still hold it's value.


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Related Reading


Care and Cleaning of Melmac Dinnerware


Collecting Melmac Dinnerware

You may enjoy reading my art studio mayhem blog  , click on the photo to continue!

Apollo Ware Melmac Dinnerware Alexander Barna

I had to hurry up and tell you about this amazing item being offered at (Markus Data) Dee Dee's Retro Corner on Etsy.  Dee Dee has has come across this fabulous mint in box snack set of melmac cups and snack trays in Apollo Ware.  Clearly designer by Alexander Barna.  First let me start by saying it appears the original price was $4..49--probably back when gas was 15 cents a gallon.  It is now being offered at  $45--right in line with $3.60 in gas I paid at the pump the other day.

What is amazing is that the cups claim to be "dishwasher safe, chip resistant, break resistant" and have a "2 year guarantee."  A far cry from when melmac first came out.  When the big bulky hunks of melmac dishes circa 1948-1952  was going on melmac was said to be "unbreakable" and carried up to a ten year warranty. I guess over time the composition of the melmac changed, and the manufacturers wised up.

Alexander Barna was the designer. Now I've done a lot of research on him but fallen short. There was a designer of all things from Hungary originally named Sandor Barna but legally changed his name to Alexander. He has ties to St Louis but I have yet to confirm or deny this indeed was the melmac man.   I do know that the Apollo Ware line is something I don't see that often, and sure as heck never see it in it's original box.  Some mid century modern melamine dinnerware lover is really going to love this.

Fostoria Glass Company Melmac Dinnerware Melamine 1958

Pom Decors in Harrisburg, PA offers this melmac plate, pattern name "Kismet" by Fostoria!

Fostoria Glass Company... one of the smarter glass manufacturers. I think it's funny that when melmac first came onto the market and gained momentum, there was a slew of dinnerware companies trying to "tarnish it." Yes, those makers of fine china, ceramics and even pottery makers said how horrible it was...in fact there was a real coalition formed against the melmac! An anti-melmac campaign if you will.  Well, you can imagine from the bazillions of dishes floating around today how well that actually worked. 

Melmac bowls are freeform and china-like from 51VC

I suppose we can say the melmac won for a bit. I would have loved to see the executive's faces in some companies, years later and perhaps with their tails between their legs make the decision to move into melamine. Many of these same dinnerware makers (Stetson, Fostoria, etc..) who trashed it at first decided to sell lines of their own melamine. If you can't beat them, join them....For it was a grand day that they had to succumb to tapping into the never-ending market of plastic dishes.  For some of them, their decision to do so was made a bit to late.

Fostoria's mark is the same as their china!  Photos above and below: Junky Vagabond

Junky Vagabond has this sweet yellow Fostoria melmac!

People say that Fostoria got into the melmac scene sometime in the 1950's. I found an exact reference in an Industrial Design (Volume 5, circa 1958) book where Fostoria Management declared they wanted to have their own melamine lines. They were going to market it via their various marketing channels including department stores and gift shops. It's safe to say mid 1958-1960's this was indeed the case.  Fostoria put out a lovely and high quality product. I am unsure who the designers actually were, but if you look closely at the styles, they had to be very upscale. No "stock patterns" here.

Fostoria had two-tone melamine and gorgeous designs, but finding good examples can be hard. These : RetroChalet

The sheer problem with this decision is that it came too late.  This small production window of melamine by the company makes Fostoria melmac rare. It's somewhat hard to find in good shape considering most people bought it to use it. The designs however, are exquisite. Most of the solid colors like pink, taupe, blues or yellows are somewhat translucent if you hold them to the light. Patterns like the above and below scream FUN FIFTIES and MOD SIXTIES--no decals or mass produced designs.  Sadly we'll never see half of what was produced as it's probably been used, abused and scratched to hell and back. Collectors of both Fostoria glass or melmac dishes would give their right leg for a full set of mint condition, making Fostoria melamine highly collectible and expensive. 

Treasures n Tidbits has these rare pieces of Fostoria available.

So the one question that people ask me is why wouldn't Fostoria melmac last? Considering they were a leading glass maker with a great reputation and following, why is it so rare?   Truth be told their introduction of melamine just came too late on the market in a time when production costs were higher and melamine powders weren't getting any cheaper. If you figure a set of melmac would cost just about the same as a set of fine china, you do the math.  Now, some blame the death of melmac on Corelle --but I disagree. You'll have to hear me rant about that in another post.  In the meantime, those holding Fostoria examples should covet them indeed.

Plastics Melmac Dinnerware Blog 1 Yr Old and 40000 Views

Me and Mom and our TexasWare bowl!

Happy 1st "real" Birthday to The Melmac Central Blog!  I started working on the blog last November but I wasn't really posting alot until December of 2010  Now this little blog is officially ONE YEAR OLD, and I've been blogging about lots of retro art and design plastic, jewelry, melmac dinnerware, and fantastic plastic!

I just wanted to say thanks for reading. In just one year my little blog has reached over 40,000 views and have had visitors in over 26 countries! I'm currently at a Page Rank 4 in Google and steady rank a 3 or better.   I never knew people would be reading!

What you may not know is how special this little blog is to me. You see, it was a side project at first to tribute my love of plastics to my friend Derek who had been lost to cancer.  I had not really done much with the blog, until my mother ended up with Colo-rectal cancer and I decided posting would get my mind occupied on something!  Mom beat the cancer so to speak, but died later that night in the hospital, just one year ago to be exact--so I posted, and posted, and posted! I guess you could say  posting was an outlet, and the one thing  to keep those wonderful memories of me and mom baking in our plastic fantastic alive....and my friend Derek's love for plastics too.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading.....

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If you have any pictures of your collection of plastic-anything, or have stories about your favorite retro plastics or vintage melamine dinnerware stories, please email them to me!

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New Melmac Carlisle in Restaurants Near You Cici's Pizza Harrisonburg, Virginia

I'm happy to report that modern day melmac is still in use in some restaurants. Recently I had the pleasure of eating at CiCi's All-U-Can Eat Pizza and Salad place down in the mountains of Virginia. They must have had twenty different types of pizza....some like spinach Alfredo and taco cheeseburger something or other I would never even thought of on my own! The best part about the whole place was the fact the plates were all melmac.   Yep, that's right, a BIG OL' stack of Carlisle in yellow was waiting...not sure who made the tumblers but they reminded me of the old Texan by Texasware!!!

As for the soup, salad, and pizza, you can' beat it for the price and the taste.   They are a-ok in my book! Thanks for keeping melmac alive!

History of Carlisle: 
Dates back to 1955. In actuality they were in early plastics making including serving ware. They are directly related to Si-Lite, and through them acquired Brookpark , Arrowhead and Kenro later in life.  Read all about their history HERE!

Walmart : Melamine and Melmac Eye Candy Design For Summer 2011

New lines for summer in Walmart Stores now, usually gone by May. 

What is old is new again. The fun vintage dishes of the fifties may have died off in the 1960's, but today melmac is a staple in many homes. Who would have predicted that the fun retro colors and mod styling would circle back again, and again, and again...  Quite possibly Martha Stewart's interest in Melmac in the last 1990's into early 2003, got the ball rolling again.

Bowls, plates, tumblers, and solids mixed with stripes are going to be big this year.

In the 1950's dishes were not cheap. Many people go to the Dollar Store and can pick up a new, made in China melamine dish for $1.  Stores like Target , Bed Bath and Beyond and Kohl's sell designer melamine like Jackie Shapiro and French Bull designs for a pretty penny now-a-days.  Most probably made at the same plants that make the Dollar Store dishes.  In my opinion, the Walmart tends to be best priced for the styles and colors.  This year, most items are ranging under $2 per plate or bowl.   Colors are brights and many solids are present to be mixed with stripes or floral prints.

  I am a vintage diva, however, nothing beats appreciating a great Melmac display.

Welcome to Boonton New Jersey: Melmac Tour Stop 2 In Search of Boontonware Dishes by Ira Mency

Welcome to Boonton, New Jersey!

Home of the Boontonware dishes, these available at OurVintageHouse

I'm slowly copying my old site archives over from my old melmac site,so if you have not read part one of my Boonton melamine factory tour. If you have not taken part one of the tour, you should CLICK HERE TO TAKE BOONTON FACTORY TOUR PART ONE OF THIS TOUR NOW, and don't worry you can come back here soon.  Anyhow, I found these old photos I took several years back when I went to Boonton, New Jersey. I was on a quest to find answers about the Boontonware Melmac Factory and history in the town--after I found this card left to me in the Derek Schultz estate.

A clue left to me from Derek Schultz, a  formerNew Jersian. 

I went on a cold, rainy, August day as I was in the middle of Hunterdon, NJ and took the ride. As fate would have it the rain got into my camera and I was forced to snap grainy photos from my cellphone, so bear with me as I have tried to "spice up" the photos for your viewing pleasure.  My goal was to track down the last known place that the "Sales Offices" were for Boonton, ie: The English and English Distributor.

I was expecting a giant and huge industrial town, but instead found this quaint picturesque town on the top of a mountain, surrounded by valleys, whose official town website states that it is about 2.45 square miles.  I was shocked when I arrived.  You can tell this town has a lot of character, and history buried here. It once had a rubber factory, iron works / foundry, and booming businesses. At the time of my visit, it was home to an Allstate office and Salvage Company.  Bits and snippets of history indicate this building served many purposes over the years....like a hardware store way back when.... 

Perhaps, a hardware store?  Courtesy of Derek Schultz Archives. 

(I also found THIS PHOTO housed by the Boonton Historical Society which shows the front of the building.) What you don't know or see is that the magic of this building is actually that it's FIVE STORIES TALL! I was in awe the way the old time buildings had been built "into" the earth.  What you only see here in the above photo is the building on 520 Main Street. Here's the side and back:

I was specifically interested in finding out where the last known sales office of Boonton was as represented by English and English.  Most of the buildings along main street on this side, are teetering on the hillside showing their age, their history, and only hints of their past.  I really thought it was ingenious the way in which these buildings were facing Main Street, but backed up into Plane Street.  I drove down the steep hill of Plane Street and went around the back of the building looking for clues. 

I thought perhaps the old addage, "Backdoor friends are best" may apply to the "R" in "520R" on the card meaning "Rear", or perhaps there was just so many individual offices "R" was just one of the many.  I do want to say the back has a potential loading dock and plenty of capabilities for storage of said dishes. Look at all those steps!  I wouldn't want to carry any heavy Boonton dishes down there!

The town's history goes back to the 1800's.  I wonder just how many different businesses were in this building? At the time of my visit, several years ago, it was home to Allstate Insurance and a Salvage Company. However, I was more intrigued by the tiny brick building that was falling apart out back. I wanted someone to heist me up to peek inside, but no one was around to help me check for clues.

 

I was not sure what this was, but it intrigued me. Was it ever used for melmac dish storage?

A bunch of different Boonton dishes, well made and very popular at RetroChalet.

Just for clarification, there was evidence in print that a later Boonton Moulding Co. took over offices at 30 Plane Street. This would be the building on the far right corner of Plane and Main Street as circled in red on the map below.  When I saw it, it looked nothing more than a brick office building, and was vacant/for rent. (As you can see in the photo, it was just one block down from the original English and English distributors, and you can see the back of the buildings where I was taking the photos.)  I heard this was an office that handled injection molding of plastics, but most likely outsourced the actual projects.

A new address in the Boonton saga, what is 30 Plane Street?

Perhaps I'll never have the answers to all my questions, but I believe that sooner or later the pieces will fall into place. The town's history in molded plastic goes all the way back to an early Loanda Hard Rubber Company from 1891 (founded by Edwin A. Scribner) and started the town's commitment to plastic molding.

In a nutshell, continuous rubber production, a full fledged rubber company, a growing knowledge in bakelite and plastics molding ended up keeping the town's plastic industry spreading like wildfire. This teeny tiny town was turning out world famous Boontonware years later-thanks to Edwin's son George Scribner's  Boonton Molding Company.

Boonton Things You May Like :





My Boonton, NJ  (Factory) Tour Part One 

Read this site for all other Boontonware Posts!


Read more on this evolution of the rubber and plastics industry can be read in a great article by Tammy Scully found HERE. 

View the Official Town History as per Official Town Website HERE. 


View the town though years of interesting postcards at Boonton Postcards!

View some photos from  the Boonton Historical Society !

View all of the Boonton Photos from the Community!

Vintage Goodies Etsy Shop Loaded With Melmac and TexasWare

Vintage Goodies, how I adore thee!

These saucers she has are pretty hard to find, I think they could be called Fantasy...

Lisa Price has a real eye for cool melmac, in fact, her Etsy shop Vintage Goodies has proof of that.  She's from Grand Rapids, MI and opened her Etsy shop in 2006.  She lists her new plastic and melamine finds under the "Melmac Attack" section.  It's definitely worth a look-see....her prices are fair and good bargains are waiting to be had!  Here's some previews of what you may find!

Just lovely..

I was shocked to see Purple Texas ware style bowls in her shop.  This is a Texas Ware Design.

I was astonished to see so much Texasware Purple stocked, because normally the only "purple" I see is the Marcrest/Royalon Corsage Patten (see it here.)  The good thing about Lisa's shop, is you can buy a few pieces here and there to build your set, and assemble it over time! This is a more affordable option than investing in a whole set at once.  Plus, if you only need the plates, or mugs, you've come to the right place.

I love solid purple melmac!

Lisa explains, "I just LOVE a good estate sale. I love to reuse things from the past because they are made so much better than things today, and they are much more interesting. From the color to the design they evoke a feeling and often a story. I am particularly fond of items from the 1950s and focus on 40s-60s wares in my shop."

A sweet little set of cups and saucers. Love the styling on these handles!

Lisa's shop has more than just melmac, in fact, it's cool of all kinds of great linens, textiles, aprons, kitchenalia, mod things and more!  She explains, "These finds already have a story to tell, and I think it is amazing to walk into someone's life and see what books they read and what clothes they wore. I am offering things that I like but either don't quite fit my decor or I just know is a good find."

Her retro style block printed towels are a must have as a melmac-go with. What great gift ideas!

She has a second shop, Art Goodies, which has block-printed towels, great for any vintage kitchen or baking diva! The designs here are amazing.  They are cute, stylish, and the best part, handmade with love!   Nothing like adding that....to this:

SO MODERN!

Beautiful Boontonware.

So I wonder, why the love of vintage?  Lisa says, Vintage is also a way of shopping green. Use something fun and interesting from the past, it creates a unique and fun look while being nice to the environment! :)"    Kudos to you Lisa, ding ding, I'm adding your shop to the sidebar, YOU ROCK! 


Catch up with Lisa: 
VintageGoodies on Etsy
ArtGoodies on Etsy 
ArtGoodies Blog
See her photos on FLICKR!

Hemco , Hemcoware, Hemcolite, Westinghouse Saga - Early Melamine and Melmac Dinnerware

Photo Courtesy of Cathigreen on Etsy!

Hemco Plastics Division 

of Bryant Electric Company

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Hemco's Early Plastics
Hemco was one of the earlier plastic molders who had it's plastics in the form of dinnerware on the market for industrial and consumer use. 

Early examples of Beetleware "mania" included hard plastic kiddie dishes and Mickey Mouse mugs. In Newsweek Magazine circa 1939, Hemco proudly explained they had hundreds of new dies for producing such items.  A small picture of Mickey Mouse next to the article read, "We hired salesman who knew dishes rather than switches and plugs...and almost before we knew it, we had an important new business on our hands."

Kiddie dishes like this were mass produced by Hemco Plastics Division.

In 1943, Modern Plastics reported, "Hemco is molding a wide variety of fighting material. This includes plastic inner helmets, coil forms for military radio, plastic bomb loading funnels, radio parts, fuze noses, airplane instrument cases, ship lighting reflectors....."    Add that to the already evident masses of plastic cups, utensils, divided kiddie dishes,  and kitchen items.

Rare 1939 Hemco Plastics were beautiful in color and styling.  This item was referred to as Beetleware. Credit: MOMA

Hemco's Industrial & Consumer Dinnerware 
Sometime during this entire era, contracts with the aviation industry were also evident for dinnerware.  We can see by viewing these rare early examples made by Hemco (identical to Watertown Ware shapes for the navy) here on fellow researcher Christopher McPherson's wonderful Plastic Living Site.    Fellow researcher Robin Ptacek, an avid collector of early plastics has assembled beautiful collection of early brightly-colored Hemco.  Colors so radiant such as bright reds, greens, yellows and blues are becoming harder and harder to find.  Some of the earlier wares were Beetle, Polystryne, and Melamine.   It is not uncommon to find an old wicker hamper full of a picnic set marked Hemco!

Rare Hemcoware Cups (probably melamine) as offered by Cathigreen on Etsy!

Hemco was Competing with Westinghouse (it's owner)
In 1946, it is stated that through "Plastics Business" the Bryant Electric Company, Westinghouse owns Hemco Plastics Company, a leading custom molder of plastics.   So one must ponder the question was Westinghouse using Hemco to mold it's many radio cases, fan parts, and  washer, dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator parts?

Westinghouse radio by VintageRatz on Etsy.  Makes you wonder was Hemco molding the cases?

 
What's even stranger, Westinghouse is also doing their own melamine and melmac branded dishes to compete against it's own Hemcoware! Pieces can be found marked Westinghouse, Ovation, Newport, Darien, and more.....

Photo from TheCreekHouse on Etsy showing a Westinghouse backstamp!

Photo and this Westinghouse creamer/sugar set available from TheCreekHouse on Etsy!

Westinghouse's other line "Newport" divided bowl by RetroChalet on Etsy!

Ovation line by Westinghouse offered at JetSetVintage on Etsy!

Hemco's Three Lines of Dinnerware: 


Several brands produced for the Hemco line were marked Hemco, Hemcoware, and Hemcolite.  Curiously, some of these lines were melamine, and others made of a more ridgid polystryene-type material.

This photo from Black Market Antiques, and is that of a "HemcoLite" cup and saucer.

I originally thought that the "Hemcolite" line was indeed the Polystryene line, (hence lighter in weight making it perfect for picnic plastics) but examples with all different backstamps have emerged making me wonder just really was going on.  Of course we may fathom the factory could have "forgotten" to change the backstamps, marking the dishes wrong but that theory was debunked when I read in a Consumer Reports magazine of November 1954, it mentions "Hemcoware" as using "improved polystreyene for its cups."   So just what was melamine and what was polystrene and why was there so much mixing and matching going on?   It's so confusing as some Hemco was Beetleware, Polystryene, or Melamine! Geesh!

Hemcoware Plates, thinner than most 1950's melamine were great for picnic use also, these sold by RetroChalet on Etsy! 

I do have a set of nicely sturdy Hemco dinnerware in my camp in Maine.  They are thicker than these above Hemcoware dinner plates, and resemblant of most 1950's thick melmac.  It is unclear why there were so many variants of Hemco, unless Westinghouse just wanted to cover all angles and all markets, which was probably smart at the time.

Hemcolite cups as offered by ZebrasandBubblegum on Etsy! See below for same molds from Long Island!

Hemco's Molds are Found in Long Island, NY: 
I'm afraid we won't get the answers to these questions, as Hemco molds turned up in Long Island City, NY and are backstamped as such. I have been unable to find out a lot of information, except finding a few rare dolls on this site, dolls circa 1949-1961 which begs the question WHEN during that time did HEMCO PLASTICS sell their molds to PMA Corp?    If you compare they are dead-ringers for Hemco molds, but molded in a polystrene.

The same exact Hemco plates and cups, except made of a cheaper, thinner polystrene were also sold by RetroChalet but backstamped NY Plastic Molded Arts Corp, Long Island NY.  

More from Long Island, NY.

Additional Information: 

Hemco at MOMA 1939 Examples found here

Read about Bryant Electric Company on Wikipedia
History of Bridgeport, Connecticut on Wikipedia
Plastic Molded Arts Corp (doll information)