Alden Christmas Salt Shakers

The beautiful picture above illustrates the collection of one of our AGSSSC members, who had a goal of obtaining all colors possible of each pattern. As shown, some are of salt shakers (with their unique patented “December 25, 1877” agitators), and some display peppers without the agitator and smaller holes, or one with a plain top, smaller holes and no finial. The Christmas Salts were produced both as a Barrel and a Panel, first by the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company with the tops patented by Hiram J. White on December 25, 1877 and assigned to Dana R. Alden of Boston, MA via Patent No. 198,554, and then by other glass companies when the demand became overwhelming. Please refer to “The World of Salt Shakers”, Second Edition, by Mildred and Ralph Lechner, for an interesting commentary on these “Christmas Salts.” Once you have finished this article, you may want to click on the link below that will take you to an interesting article on “Shakers That Do Something” that includes more information on the Christmas Salts and many other old glass shakers with mechanical devices to improve the flow of salt from shakers.

The following pictures also show more Christmas Salts than you have probably ever seen. A special thanks to our members for sharing their collections of these rare shakers.