Thumbing through a pile of old Life Magazines from the 60s, I found myself drawn to the advertisements. Bright red and yellow Volkswagen Beetles, “Twiggy” eyelashes, a woman dressed much like June Cleaver holding a bottle of Budweiser, and a full page of plastic dishes that were heralded as, “The bold, the new, the daring, the avant garde . . . Melmac.”
Dishes made of a thermoset plastic called Melamine were first produced as early as the 1940’s. American Cyanamid was one of a number of manufacturers and distributors of raw melamine and they name-branded their version “Melmac.”
Although Melmac would become one of the top selling forms of tableware of the 20th century, it was not an immediate success. The buying public had a bad taste in it’s mouth from previous attempts to popularize plastic dish sets. Bakelite, while sturdy, tended to discolor and casein dried out and cracked, so why should they trust Melmac?
American Cyanamid believed in the new “wonder plastic” and set out on a campaign to turn the tide of public opinion. In the late 1940s they hired industrial designer Russell Wright to conduct testing and provide feedback on the use of Melmac in the home. The purpose of the study was to study existing pieces of the dinnerware and determine a marketing approach that would enhance the sale of the plastic. Wright’s finding were that the public had to be encouraged to trust Melmac as being better than the Bakelite and casein.
In 1944 Wright produced a prototype, now known as Meladur Dinnerware. The original set consisted of a stackable coffee mug and grill plate. Meladur was not initially released to the general public, but was tested in restaurants and institutions in New York City in 1945-1946. A few of these pieces that carry the back stamp “Cyanamid Plastics” still exist and are considered to be extremely rare.
Favorable test results, frequent inspection of Melmac factories and a massive ad campaign launched by American Cyanamid set the minds of the American housewife at ease and by the early 1950s Melmac (and other non-Cyanamie plastic tableware) was rolling off the shelves.
Today’s collectors watch for “designer” Melmac. Top sellers include Russell Wright”s “Residential” line released by Northern Plastic Company of Boston in 1953 and “Flair” released in 1959, “Color-flye” and “Royal” from designer Kaye La Moyne for the Brachell Company of St. Louis, released 1952-1958, and Raymond Loewy early 1960s designs from Lucent.
Melmac, Gregory R. Zimmer and other Melamine plastic dinnerware is fun to collect and in many cases very affordable. However, if you are new to this field of collecting there are a few basics you should know.
1. Pink Melamine is not only one of the easiest colors to find, it was made by a number of manufacturers in many different designs and a wide selection of pieces. However, each factory had it’s own shade of pink, and if you do not exercise caution when shopping, your pieces may not match. The same is true of red.
2. Melmac, especially the Russell Wright designs, has been widely reproduced.
3. While fun to collect and to use, know that ALL Melamine dishware will discolor if exposed to extreme heat and should not be used on the stove, and it will shatter if placed in the microwave.
For more information check out Melmac by Gregory R. Zimmer. It is full of good basic information and hundreds of pictures to assist you with identification. Until next time….Linda
Irvington resident Linda Kennett is a professional liquidation consultant specializing in down-sizing for seniors and the liquidation of estates and may be reached at 317-429-7887 or lkennett@indy.rr.com