I am starting another new, occasional feature: What to Collect, spotlighting: Collections inspired by your photos, maybe a little bit of the collectible’s history, and maybe a look at the particularly rare or unusual pieces to look for. First up: Anodized aluminum housewares — especially the brightly colored pieces.
I was inspired to go learn more about vintage and antique anodized aluminum by the photo above: It’s from Chicken301, who uploaded this photo of “anodised aluminum planters with succulents” when readers shared 105 photos of their outdoor spaces. Sure, I’d seen colored aluminum tumblers and coasters before — but never planters like these. So pretty — and such an impact when you group them together — this is the secret of displaying collections: Mass them. Anodized aluminum: What else is out there? So I went searching on etsy.com to see what other odd and wonderful examples I could find… what to collect? –>
To start, I searched “anodized aluminum” on etsy… and received just four pages of items in return for my query. I went through the four pages and found a few nice examples of this collectible… but I was not satisfied … and thought there must be more. Sure there was: I searched “vintage aluminum”, and — yikes! — 193 pages came back to me to ogle. I made it through 90 pages and in the process found this:
Above: Smogmaster Ash Tray from VintageCoolETC on etsy.com. Image used with permission. And this:
Above: A terrific wall light with four different color aluminum shades, also from VintageCoolETC. Image used with permission. And this:
Above: And on page 90, I found this — NOS liquor bottle pourers, shining more brightly as an aluminum Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. At first I sent the listing to Cullen, thinking he would love this. But before he could even reply, I had to have these for my own vintage hoard. Score! Will I ever get the guts to actually use them? I think not…they are just too too sparkly….
The history of brightly colored vintage anodized aluminum housewares…
I could not find much about the history of this collectible online. I welcome any readers with knowledge of this collectible to share — and I will add it here.
What are the most collectible examples of vintage and antique anodized aluminum housewares…
Again, I need help on this one. I tend to believe the tumblers and coasters are pretty common and, therefore, not worth a great deal of money. But going through all those etsy pages (and mind you — I only made it to page 90 of 193 before my eyes started to bug out), I was able to spot some pieces that looked “odd” or in particularly good condition that I guess would be worth more.