 |
| cream and sugar at my house |
Today I learned that Boonton melmine dishes, the sturdy dishes gracing my Girl Scout camp dining hall, were designed by a woman named Belle Kogan (1902-2000). She studied mechanical drawing in high school and studied briefly at the Pratt Institute in New York.
Boonton was promoted as stylish and sturdy -- indeed the company would replace pieces you broke. Lucky for them, we didn't know this at camp, where we made an art form of breaking them by forcing them into dish washing baskets.
To learn more about Kogan, I especially recommend this website which considers a variety of drinking vessels and highlights the Boonton coffee cup. The researcher notes, “Kogan worked with many different media including silver, aluminum, ceramics, glass, plastic, wood and cloth and was one of the first industrial designers – man or woman – to experiment with plastic. Her 1950s lines of plastic dinnerware for Boonton Molding Co. was particularly popular and was purchased widely.”
Additional Reading
Entry on the Cooper Hewitt's website; includes some of her drawings (such as the 1958 rendering of the sugar bowl lid below) as well as the pieces themselves.
 |
| Cooper Hewitt Museum |
Cream and sugar in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Article in industrial design magazine Core 77, from 2015.
Very artsy shots (you may have to click on each to see them fully) at another design website.
