Collecting Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers
Novelty salt and pepper shakers have been produced in every shape and style imaginable. Explore the following pages to discover the wide, wacky world of Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers.
In this section you will learn about the different designs used to produce S&P's. You will also learn the "Shaker Lingo" collector's use when referring to the differant shaker types they collect. The definitions below describe the majority of the 'structural types' or forms of salt and pepper sets that our members collect in the general shaker lingo that we use. These definitions do not include the various 'design types' the shakers can be in such as comic or realistic animals, realistic or anthropomorphic objects or vegetables, and so on. That could be another entire set of web page definitions one day!
Included with each definition are several photos of different shakers within each form type. Many shakers can be more than one type - such as a Longboy which is also a One Piece, a Wired Set which is also a Hanger, or any type which was created as part of a Series of several like sets.
GO-WITH'S
Go-With shaker sets consists of two different but related objects with a common theme. Examples are a ball and a bat, a Squirrel and a nut, a pen and ink, or a telephone and a phone book. They can also represent a play on words like a skunk and a single cent penny - which is a play on 'scent'. Most common are separate Go-With pieces to form a pair but the pair may also be a Nester such as a cup on a saucer or the aircraft on the aircraft carrier.
WIRE OR SPRING SETS
Wire or Spring sets have metal wire supports. Wire sets include a metal wire shaped tandem bicycle that a ceramic Monkey shaker couple sit on, the wire Napkin Holder set that supports the two shaker heads, or animals and characters with wire bodies and legs with shakers objects or body halves hanging from their sides. Spring sets have shaker heads fastened to bases in the shape of tapered springs that make the set wobble when touched. The shakers may also be supported on wire
ROCKER'S
Rocker shakers have rounded bases that rock on their base when touched. Usually both pieces of a set have the save rocker base.
SPIKE'S or BOBBER'S
Bobber shakers are usually a Nester with the base piece having a pointed top that the upper piece rests on Bobs when touched. These are usually animals or people with their bodies as the base shaker and their concave head sitting on the point. There is a series of Three-Piece Bobbers where the base has two bodies with points built into it and two like animal shaker heads Bob on the points.
SERIES SHAKERS
A line of shakers produced by a company were all the sets follow a theme such a the "Bug Band" sets shown above.
