My friend Max recently relocated from Manhattan to Brooklyn and was in the market for some new pieces for his new apt. He emailed me over the weekend:
"any idea who reproduced the classic hellerware melamine stacking plates (in colors) recently? lali and i are frantically searching the internet trying to find them. i'm obsessed. i remember our grandmother had it in orange."
I hadn't the foggiest that the classic Massimo Vignelli melamine dinnerware for Heller (designed in the 60s, but looks like a defining piece of the early 70s) had been reissued.
I saw throuh the NYT style archives that it had been reissued in 2007 (and carried by Conran we think) in black, white and grey. It's easy to find the reissued Hellerware in white (here, here, and here $30 for a four piece set), but other colors were impossible to find new. The best I could direct him to were etsy and eBay vendors selling the stuff used. 
Max updated me throughout the long weekend of his transactions on eBay, and it seems like he did pretty well.
"$50 for a 13 piece set of yellow including: bowls, mugs, dessert plates AND tray..not bad at all."
"won the yellow heller on ebay. don't fret, they'll be some left for you...one day. when i'm dead."
What really interested me was his final question:
"But, can I feed guests on plastic, at dinner parties?"
Any thoughts on that?
Sep 7, 2009
Old Heller
Labels: celeb designers, kitchen/tabletop, Mid-Century, Under $50
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
absolutely you can feed guests on heller. it's such classic stuff. and beautiful.
Agree with Ms. Foodinista -- of COURSE you can! I apparently threw a tantrum when my parents finally decided to get rid of their amazing orange set in the late 80s. They kept one place setting just for me to use (and of course now wish they'd kept it all). Recognizing this, my mom gave me a vintage set of the large plates in every color (found in Palm Springs) a couple years ago. There's something so classic and comforting about them ... I bring 'em out quite often!
Naturally you feed guests on them. (I'm just now blogging about having to find some replacements for vanished Heller plates.)
I have a large amount of vintage Hellerware in orange, yellow and wht. If anyone is interested,
please contact me. Patti
Just had a thought, I am not sure how to tell whether this is all vintage Heller or not? If anyone can tell me the difference, please clue me in. Thanks, Patti
Post a Comment