In Design: Melamine: A Relic of Yesterday (with a Caveat for Today)
Several months ago, I spotted a slick goldenrod yellow melamine dish set at the local Salvation Army. Inspecting the pieces, I recalled childhood experiences: eating brown sugar and butter sandwiches from the plates and drinking cold whole milk from the teacups of a similar set that belonged to my mother—cool, shiny and the color of homemade chocolate pudding. Priced at under $5 and including a gracefully beautiful sugar-creamer pair, that goldenrod collection came home with me, and with it came my desire to find out more about the history and value of these artifacts of my childhood—and just about everybody else born between 1940 and 1980.
The Melamine Era
Dishes made of melamine resin (the proper name for this plastic, more commonly known as simply melamine or Melmac, a trade name) became popular after the second world war, when their affordability, shatterproof practicality, and modern appeal made them an attractive alternative to ceramics and glass. Though initial designs were essentially meant to emulate those more traditional materials, replicating relatively subdued classic tableware forms, designers soon began to draw upon the protean character of this material, producing more fluid, exotic and novel shapes—from curvaceous divided serving bowls to square tea cups.
