Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Vintage Kitchen Accessory du Jour

When was the last time you saw one of these?...



Attach this kitchen wrap dispenser to the wall, and stock the designated compartments with a roll of aluminum foil, wax paper and paper towels. Then simply lift the lid and use the serrated edges, pictured below, to tear off a sheet, as needed...



A popular kitchen accessory back in the mid-20th century, one wonders why you don't see them these days. Wouldn't it be handier than rummaging through your drawers? (insert joke here.)

The dispenser above is available through Etsy for around $200, if you find you can't live without one. The ad (1950s?) below, shows  a Kromex "Triple Tier Towel Dispenser" (above the bread boxes) for $6.95....


Which reminds me.... when was the last time you saw a bread box?

And is that a CAKE tin?

Oops...distracted. Where were we?

The kitchen wrap dispensers were available in a range of colours...

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This one has a compartment for Saran Wrap too...

[via] 
Perhaps it was owned by Marabel Morgan, author of "The Total Woman," who proposed that women rekindle their marriages by greeting their husbands at the door dressed in nothing but Saran Wrap.

 So, when was the last time you saw one of these Foil Wrap/Wax Paper/Paper Towel Wall Dispensers?

And how do you store these items?

32 comments:

  1. We didn't have one of those fancy foil/paper/towel dispenser thingies. I keep those rolls in my kitchen drawer(!).

    Mother had a very similar shiny canister set in the 1950s.

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    1. LX: So you have to rummage through your own drawers?

      Delete
  2. I have a bread box! I use it for my drugs.

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  3. a bread box? don't you have one?
    isn't it all yeasty?

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    1. NORMA: At least the contents of my box haven’t gone stale, like yours.

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    2. but mine easily accommodates
      the longest baguette.

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    3. NORMA: And you’d still have room for an éclair and a couple of Pop-Tarts.

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  4. I believe , these days, people just don't want these things to clutter up their counters. I have never seen one of these, but my mother does still use her bread box to hide her jewels . And to answer your question, Wouldn't it be handier than rummaging through your drawers? no. people find it more enjoyable rummaging in my drawers.

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    1. MISTRESS MADDIE: I don’t suppose there’s much wiggle room in your drawers to rummage about based on what we’ve seen.

      Delete
  5. But on a side note, I'm guessing with her Tin Foil Hat Talents, Ms Scarlett has a couple of these to make her tin foil use much more easy.

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    Replies
    1. MISTRESS MADDIE: I’m having an industrial-sized version installed in the Tinfoil Room.

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  6. I've never seen one of these either. Although, now that I have, I want one more than anything! I'm sick to death of the mess our "wrap, bag and oddments" cupboard is in.

    The Host's Parents used to have a bread bin, and the maternal grandparents had a bread crock - I can only describe it as a big earthenware jar with a wooden lid.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. MR. DeVICE: Googling led me to find that Henry Watson’s Potteries are still making bread crocks if you have a spare £60 lying about.

      As for the vintage kitchen dispensers, they can be had for about $25 if you search around. I don’t know why the dispenser in the first photo is so outrageously priced.

      Delete
  7. I want a dispenser too! I already have a very large cake tin though.
    Sx

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    1. MISS SCARLET: Did someone mention CAKE?

      I suppose you need a large cake box for your enormous muffin.

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  8. I never saw such a dispenser, either on the web or in a collection / museum, even when I worked in a collection of household goods & furniture & stuff. We were sometimes called when people were breaking up a household and we were able to take over complete kitchen environments from the fifties, sixties, seventies, and of course pieces from pre-war times. It was never a special area of interest ; I like it, but never was able to determine by one short glimpse when where what like my than colleague - she could see in the fraction of a second what was in a large kitchen, while I stared at shiny objects ... Also the terminus "Saran Wrap" is / was unknown to me. From what I read it is not really recommendable to wait behind the front door wrapped into his stuff "'til hubsy" staggers homey, "dolly wifey" had a good chance to suffocate, that silly tart.

    The last time I saw the bread box was this morning, there is a large Irdenware thing in the kitchen, white, round ; and because someone broke the original lid that plastic thing one uses in the micro to cover stuff has to double as lid for the bread box, Brottopf.

    The paper towel roll stands somewhere on the counter ; the alu stuff is never used, I think the roll is still from the 1980s, lies in the drawer of the kitchen table. There also must be some ancient clear wrap, don't know whether adhesive or not. Guess its bought by my mother, who died more than twenty years ago. I never need that stuff.

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    1. MAGO: These vintage kitchen wrap dispensers may have been sold only in the North American market. I know that the Kromex company (in the advertisement) was based in the United States.

      You have some ancient clear wrap? Try doing this!

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    2. A whole-body-Brazilian, all in one ripp-off !? No thank you, it would take days until my sensual soft skin had recovered ...

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    3. I'm sure there's some health & safety violation taking place.

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    4. Mistress, OK instead of a Saran Wrap® wrap, how about a Chicken Skin Gimp Suit instead?

      Delete
  9. i do have a nice chrome bread box which i've never used, but simply couldn't resist buying.

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    1. NORMA: Is this like having “good china” that you only bring out for guests?

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  10. Of course I remember seeing this dispenser at my aunt house... that bitch... Anyway, my parents had one of those ugly thing to hold the Scott towel rolls. Today, we're using something like this. It does take space on the counter and we have so few of it already. I remember seeing this at a friend's house. rather neat, I'd say. And I did find something that I would buy right away if I ever bumped into it at the mall. Cute, eh?

    As for the saran/tin foil/wax/parchemin paper, we use one of these.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. HUGGY JON: Your comment gave me carpal tunnel syndrome.

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  11. My mother had the aluminum canisters with copper tops that matched the top ones. If I had the crappy kitchen of my childhood, I could sell if for a fortune on Etsy.

    I keep my rolls, tidily, in a drawer.

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    Replies
    1. PEENEE: *pushes Peenee headfirst into Jon’s Hoosier*

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  12. You think that's handy storage? Try a Hoosier! Jx

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    1. JON: At first glance, I thought you wanted me to store my kitchen items in a resident of Indiana but then I thought, “That can’t be right.”

      The Hoosier you pictured is indeed an incredibly efficient item of kitchen furniture!

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