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My recent acquisition: Kenro Holiday Collection |
So resigning to never actually owning her set, I decided to just buy a set for myself. All I knew from my own mother was that they were melamine dishes from a company called Melmac. So I set out to find them. And I learned that Mother was half right. The company that made the melamine dishes was actually named Kenro, one of the great melamine manufacturers that outlived most. One may argue it was their timing or their keen ways of marketing and management that sustained them during economic change.

Kenneth and Roger decided to patent their technique for METHOD AND COMPOSITION FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SPECKLED PLASTIC WARE on April 6, 1954 This patent would technically prove them being "first to patent the speckled ware" although they weren't exactly first to invent it. The diagram at right is the patent for the set's sugar bowl, considered futuristic in its day.
Identifying Kenro items is easy, since most items are clearly marked on the bottom. What may be confusing is dating. Some will list patent numbers on them, and some will say patent pending. The patent pending is obviously older and scarcer because the company had applied for a patent, which wasn't granted for the items before production began. Later items show the original patent which does not necessarily mean they were produced on that date of the patent, but is simply referring to their original patent. You will see script and print backstamps for Kenro.
So now, after several years of scouring Etsy, eBay, and just about every vintage retail shop in every city we've visited the last few years, not to mention the numerous times I made a bid on eBay only to lose out at the last minute, I was FINALLY able to purchase a large set of Kenro Holiday dishes for my very own. They arrived earlier this week and are instantly among my personal treasures. They aren't Granny's, but they remind me of her especially today, December 14th, on what would be her 107th birthday.
Still not completely sure if these will be every-day dishes, used for special occasions, or never used at all. But buying something I may never use isn't like me. I do plan on adding to the collection - not insanely, just a piece here and there as I find it. Kenro Holiday dinnerware is a lot like melted plastic popcorn: so much of it was made that it's hard to know what all is out there and available. And like those window decorations, I'll buy what I like when I see it.
But for now, I'm just going to sit at the dining room table and enjoy the view.
Still not completely sure if these will be every-day dishes, used for special occasions, or never used at all. But buying something I may never use isn't like me. I do plan on adding to the collection - not insanely, just a piece here and there as I find it. Kenro Holiday dinnerware is a lot like melted plastic popcorn: so much of it was made that it's hard to know what all is out there and available. And like those window decorations, I'll buy what I like when I see it.
But for now, I'm just going to sit at the dining room table and enjoy the view.
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