Antiques & Collecting: Salt and pepper shakers a fun collectible for beginners

Looking for an inexpensive, amusing collection for a small display area in your house? Or perhaps an item to encourage your children to be collectors and go to antiques shows with you? Kids can learn a lot about prices, money and history without a cellphone. Salt and pepper shakers come in all sizes and prices, but the figural ceramic ones are the most fun for a beginner. Salt cakes into a lump in damp weather, so in the 1700s, salt was served in a small dish with a tiny spoon. Pepper was in a tall shaker or a caster. Most were made in thin pear shapes or cylinders. They usually were glass or silver.

But by the late 1800s, inexpensive novelty sets were popular, in shapes that did not match the dinnerware. Sports were popular, with ball and bat or mitt and glove sets. McCoy made a set from two different vegetables. There might be a Dutch girl and a windmill, or a pair of dogs. Animals and birds, fruit, miniature furniture, even toys or typewriters, movie stars and celebrities were inspirations for salt and pepper sets. You could tell which was the salt because it had at least five holes in the cap; the pepper had one or two. The salt often had a few grains of rice in the container to keep the salt dry.

Glass sets were the rage in the 1930s. You can find clear bottles with metal caps, McKee glass art deco square sets in amber, a green glass called jadeite, or ball-shaped ceramic sets to match Fiesta or Harlequin dinnerware. Enesco imported sets that look like mice or snails. Holt-Howard made pixies. Pick a theme and enjoy the hunt. Most sets cost less than $20.

I have a dark purple Fenton glass candy dish with fluted or crimped sides. I was told it’s “Wistaria” pattern and that Fenton intentionally spelled the word “wisteria” incorrectly. Do you know why?

There are two different Fenton patterns: “Wistaria” and “Wisteria.” However, your candy dish is Wisteria pattern. Wisteria is a stretch glass pattern made from 1921 to 1928. On the other hand, Wistaria is frosted glass with an acid-etched design, and it was made from 1937 to 1938. The design resembles stylized wisteria blossoms. Fenton may have called this pattern “Wistaria” because it already had a “Wisteria” pattern.

Current Prices

Pirkenhammer figurine, woman, kneeling, nude, arms on head, white, 1900s, 7 x 4 inches, $30.

Lindbergh badge, photo button, airplane illustration, American flag ribbon, Minnesota's own, 3 1/4 inches, $145.

Kate Greenaway match safe, silver, girls sitting on fence, field, flowers, gold washed interior, 2 x 1/14 inches, $245.

Opera glasses, enamel, flowers, coral beads, gilt embellishments, cobalt blue ground, c. 1920, $350.

Tip: Never glue or tape a piece of paper that a sports player has autographed. The glue could bleed onto the signature. The tape could leave stains.