In the Vintage Bar Ware collector’s book by Stephen Visakay (you can still find his time capsule of a website here), the author refers to the joyful Farber Brother’s “bubble” cocktail set as a marquis example of “dimestore deco.” “Mass produced, low-priced, stylish goods…overdone, exaggerated, and inexpensive…everyone knew exactly what it was, but after seeing all those Hollywood movies during the Depression, this was the only way to get some glamour.” Anyone who has collected many of these pieces will be delighted by the design and disappointed by the flimsy chrome-plated materials. Of course, not all designs were manufactured to poor standards and pre-prohibition sets sold for quite a bit of money in their day.

3D modeling these shakers provides a welcome break from modeling the entire Bauer ringware line. In this design study series, I’m tapping into my reference books and Internet images to uncover interesting cocktail shaker and shaker set designs. The majority of these shakers were produced between 1928 and 1940 (interestingly, Prohibition ended in 1932). Famous industrial designers like Lurelle Guild, Walter von Nessen, and Norman Bel Geddes all contributed designs to various manufacturing companies. The challenge is that every time I think I’m done with my design study, I continue to find more outstanding design examples to reproduce, which seems to be keeping me from getting back to my Bauer project at the moment.

A Few Examples