From the smoldering smell of a freshly extinguished match whisking you back to the hushed awe when gathered round a pungent crackling campfire, to the sweet and spiced dance of a Snickerdoodle on your tongue, taking you back to your first batch of homemade cookies emerging soft and warm from the oven – the corollary between memory and our powerfully nuanced senses of taste and smell is unique.
Smoking & Barbecuing Fish Filets, 1893, Courtesy of Shorpy (Click on Image for Details)
When Camillo Olivetti, the founder of a growing Italian typewriter company, sent his son, Adriano, to the U.S. in 1924 to study American industrialism, did he realize that he would be plotting an entirely new course for the future of his little endeavor?
Olivetti Valentine, 1969
Unlike its flashier progeny, mother of pearl is more than an accessory to a favorite pastel sweater set. As masculine as the grips on Wyatt Earp’s spinning six-shooters, and as feminine as the posy holder dangling from Queen Victoria’s tiniest finger, mother of pearl’s subtle elegance was valued for adornments and accouterments, and lent weight, permanence and beauty to the everyday objects now molded out of disposable plastics.
Gustave Young Engraved Navy Percussion Revolver with Mother of Pearl Handle, 1851
Let’s sidestep all the financial and psychological aspects of gold for a moment and just admire it for what it is. A freakishly beautiful material. Although this might seem obvious, it is not as universally accepted as one might think. The Gold Coast natives of Timbuktu believed that their heaping surplus of gold was actually only worth its weight in salt, and traded it accordingly.
32.15 Ounces of .9999 Fine Gold (24k), Today's Value: $ 35,898
Olive oil has long been considered one of the greatest natural assets of the ancient world (and sometimes worth its weight in gold). It has consistently offered humanity the gifts of health and wealth, and is as complex and delicious as wine. Since antiquity, olive branches have been a symbol of peace – perhaps because olive trees were an agricultural offering bestowed to the colonies after they were subjugated in battle. Wherever disseminated, olive trees were lauded for their myriad everyday uses, from the culinary to the corporal.
Fratelli Carli, Italian Olive Oil
It goes without saying, but before rampant industrialization and commercialization of food, there was only the people and their land, with the former scouring the latter in search of sustained sustenance and equanimus equilibrium. At the same time that technology is shrinking the world, cultural nostalgia and fetishization of the past imbues new interest in foods of yore, more and lesser-known items appear on the shelves of stores with increasing frequency.
Yacón Chip
Toothpaste has been a controversial product from the beginning. Prior to the 1850s toothpaste was sold as a powder. Tooth powder dates back to Egypt as early as 5000 BC. The ancient Romans added harsh abrasives such as crushed bones, sand and oyster shells to their tooth cleaners.
Colgate Advertising with Brooke Shields, 1975
I say aluminum, you say (if you’re the rest of the world) aluminium - let’s call the whole thing off! At this point you would have to have your head buried in bauxite (aluminum in its naturally occurring form) to not be aware of the impact aluminum has had on the modern world.
Frozen Fried Shrimp Dinner with Tangy Cocktail Sauce for Extra "Home Style" Touch
Nothing better invokes the post war optimism and better-living-through-chemistry ideology of America than the most genuine of fakes, Naugahyde. A PVC coated vinyl fabric unleashed into the American marketplace as a replacement for leather, it followed in a long line of heavily and effectively marketed, laboratory launched imitations: Formica’s eclipsing of marble, Con-Tact paper’s mimicry and obfuscating of wood…
Naugahyde Advertising, 1967 (Read Full Copy at Bottom of Article)
I’m getting the feeling that for many household products, aluminum was the standard before plastic had it’s big breakthrough. These aluminum cups were popular in the 1940s and ’50s in the same settings where today plastic is the number one material of choice: barbecues, parties and picnics.
Bascal Aluminum Tumbler, 1950s
I was walking on the beach not long ago and came across a sight not entirely uncommon in Southern California - a pile of trash. Scattered amongst this little hill of debris situated along the foamy line where surf meets sand, was: A plastic lighter, an empty Dasani water bottle and a Gillette disposable razor. Further down the beach lay a Bic ballpoint pen. Now, how is it that both Gillette and Bic, who’ve won over consumers with the offering of cheap lighters, razors and pens, keep us convinced that plastic is the material of choice? When did men’s little personal effects become so cheap, so… disposable?
Gilette Safety Razor Catalog, 1909 / Razor Archive
First there was wine, beloved by the ancients. Then there was wine gone bad - a mishap of leaky casks or stashes gone past their prime that mutated into one of the most versatile products in the world. “Vin aigre” (which roughly translates to “sour wine”) is a combination of acetic acid (aka ethanoic acid) - an organic compound which is the result of the miracle of fermentation - chemical reactions activated by the slow decay of everything from grapes to beets, malts to grains.
Chemical Formula of Oxidative Fermentation: Making Acetic Acid
I was very excited when I found this 1950s aluminum ice cube tray. I couldn’t help but imagine a wealthy Palm Springs divorcee lounging poolside, brightly colored fingernails on her sun-leathered hands, levering ice cubes for a Tom Collins. The best thing about using aluminum is that it makes ice much faster. Plastic and rubber trays are quite inadequate, as they act as insulators between the freezing cold and the water.
1950s Aluminum Ice Cube Tray with Lever
Solid Perfume
Easy applied and alcohol-free, solid perfume has been right under our noses for quite some time. An emerging trend among a throng of chi-chi designers, it is in fact one of the oldest forms of perfume known to man. This tidy, balm-like alternative to the drench-prone atomizer, is an art with a degree of practicality matched only by the extravagance of its reliquary.
Gold and Silver Pomander, 16th Century
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