Whimsy. Made in Japan. Under Twenty Five Dollars.

My Antique Salt and Pepper Collection.

Andrew Smith

gave me the idea for this post.

He wrote about collecting recently.

The Collector

At one point I, like Andrew, collected coins from my travels. I have them from all over the world. I have American pennies and nickels. Indian head pennies. I have the quarters of the states collection as well. Probably worth something to a collector but those are in a box somewhere.

While collecting coins was interesting, it wasn’t fun, at least in my book.

I replaced that collecting addiction with another, one I’ve stuck with for almost 35 years.

I collect antique/vintage salt and pepper shakers.

Where did that come from?

Back in the late 80’s, I was in a quaint cafe in the country (Ohio) and each table had a different pair of whimsical salt and pepper shakers.

Some tables had mixed pairs, which horrified the OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) personality in me.

Each set seemed to have a unique story I could imagine.

I was hooked.

I’ve always enjoyed outings to antique shops, and this new addiction made those outings all the more fun.

I’ve been collecting them since 1989.

I’ve never counted how many I have.

My rules for the adding to the collection:

1. They have to be whimsical.

2. They have to have been made in Japan circa pre or post WWII.

3. To purchase at an antique store they have to be priced under $25 (at one point it was under ten dollars, but those day are long gone).

I don’t really know where my rules came from, I just made them up and stuck with them all of these years.

The black birds in the bottom right photo were the first ones.

But in reading

Andrew Smith

’s writing, I got curious about my collection.

Many kids wanted to collect things because they wanted to own that complete run of Transformers comics or what have you, but for me, there was a deeper motivation: these things were worth something, damnit! Eventually, I figured out that you could purchase a book (Overstreet’s Price Guide, typically) and then determine how much something was worth. Other people might then want to buy the comic from you at some future date.

While I don’t plan to sell my collection, my research turned up some interesting tidbits I was unaware of.

From Smithsonian Magazine: Would You Like Some Salt and Pepper? How About 80,000 Shakers’ Worth?

Among the earliest producers of salt and pepper shakers was the German fine pottery maker Goebel, which introduced its first three sets in 1925. (Today its Hummel shakers, introduced in 1935, are highly collectible.) Ironically, it was the Great Depression of the 1930s that gave a major boost to the popularity of salt and pepper shakers as both a household and collectible item. Ceramics producers worldwide were forced to restrict production and concentrate on lower-priced items; an obvious product was the salt and pepper shaker. Bright and cheery, it could be bought for a few cents at most local hardware stores.

Soon other ceramics companies got into the act. Japanese firms had a large share of the market from the late 1920s through the 1930s, as well as from the late 1940s through the 1950s. (Production was halted during World War II.) The shakers they produced in the postwar years, labeled “Made in occupied Japan,” or simply “Occupied Japan,” are extremely rare and highly sought after.

I have some labeled “Made in occupied Japan,” and “Occupied Japan”.

There is also a national salt and pepper collector’s club: Novelty Salt & Pepper Shakers club that hosts a convention every year.

At the convention you can buy and sell shakers, but I see that as cheating.

I looked at joining, but I’m not as obsessed.

The costume contest from one of the conventions.

What the collecting has done for me is provide me an unusual, unique hobby, one that adds some whimsy to my home.

The hardcore collectors say not to use them, but I like to when we entertain. Usually it’s the mice shakers because I have three and a half (I know the horror of it) sets of them. But sometimes it’s the tomatoes.

There’s a fun place that’s on my list of places to visit while Grey Nomading (RV traveling). We’ll probably go when heading home from our winter snowbird trip coming up in 2025:

The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum in the Great Smokey Mountains.

The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum is one of those truly unique pieces of Americana. While it may sound like it’s a remnant of roadside America, it was actually founded by Andrea Ludden. She and her family moved to Gatlinburg for the express purpose of opening up the museum to display her collection of 12,000 sets of salt and pepper shakers. That number has since grown to 20,000, and it even caused the Luddens to move to a larger building to put them on display. The museum is a kitschy ode to the art of elevating a common household item into something more interesting. It’s worth a stop, and you might even find a set that you once saw on your grandparents’ dining room table!

Maybe I am obsessed.

I have to admit, they are getting difficult to find.

I recently found two sets at an antique shop near the museum when we explored the Mothman Legacy at the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant Ohio:

We Went For Mothman and Found The Silver Bridge

But none on our trips to Beaufort, South Carolina or Louisiana, and I visited a couple antique shops while we were there.

So the hunt continues, same as it always has.

What do you collect?

Do you collect something?

Something tangible?

It’s a fun, in the real world activity that can add a bunch of unusual (maybe) outings and new learning to your life!

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