Celebrating the beauty in humble household objects
VINTAGE SPICE JARS AREN’T JUST AN INDICATOR OF HOMELINESS. THEY PINPOINT THE EVOLUTION OF THE NEW ZEALAND COOK
BELOW LEFT IS A SET of humble ceramic spice jars. They could have sat in the kitchen of most Pākehā New Zealand homes in the 1950s and 1960s. There is nothing special about them from a design point of view. Indeed, they are pretty old-fashioned with their blocky bodies, peaked lids and decorative black transfer pattern of diamonds and pendants — a bit like what can be found in the stained-glass windows of a villa or bungalow. These are functional objects. They store the particular spice labeled in capital letters on the front of the jar and allow the cook to fi nd what’s needed with a minimum of fuss.
How old-fashioned they are is evident when you set them next to the Crown Lynn “Cordon Bleu” spice jars manufactured in the 1960s (above). The homemaker who purchased these jars or received them as a gift was stylish — or at least aspiring to be. Wooden lids, sleek cylinders and a colour scheme of bold pastel stripes locate these jars fi rmly in their aesthetic moment. Look at them and imagine the kidney-shaped pool in the backyard. Even the product name reeks of sophistication: cordon bleu applies to great cooks and outstanding food, as well as being the name of a schnitzel dish. With their rubber seals, these jars seek to keep the spices within fresh. And there are no pre-applied names, so perhaps even they were more adventurous than the all-spice, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and cloves of the other jars.
The spice jar can reveal a lot about aesthetics and interior design and in turn the way individuals build an identity through the objects they buy and use in their homes. They can also divulge important things about the food people ate at different moments in the past. The five spices named on these jars are still classics.
But what would be most noticeable are the other spices that have joined them in the contemporary kitchen. As tastes and cooking methods have changed in the past 40 years, so have the contents of kitchen cupboards. Old sets of labeled spice jars can no longer function well to store what contemporary cooks seek when they reach into the cabinet to prepare dinner.