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Bakelite: Plastic fantastic
From radios to jewellery, Bakelite is very collectable - but don't be taken in by Fakelite
It is 100 years since the first plastic was patented by Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian chemist working in America.
In just a few years, plastics came to be used for hundreds of everyday things - from radios to jewellery to brake linings, toys and office equipment.
Dr Susan Mossman, curator of the Plasticity exhibition at the Science Museum in London, says Bakelite was the right material at the right time.
"It was perfect for the emerging electrical and automotive industries - things like hairdryers, radios, switches," says Dr Mossman. "But there were also Art Deco design objects with beauty and practicality.
"You could make attractive, well-designed objects in mass numbers and, eventually, bright colours as well as the early black and brown."
A hundred years on, Bakelite is collected with a verve that previous generations reserved for porcelain or silver.
Patrick Cook is the founder and owner of the Bakelite Museum in Somerset. His interest was triggered by a Bakelite radio: "Everyone said it was a horrible material, associated with the Depression, but I fell in love with the design."
Ten thousand objects later he still is - and looking for a great rarity, an elusive Bakelite guitar.
"Common objects, ashtrays and the like, fetch just a few pounds. Jewellery is very popular and can be expensive."
But beware of what collectors call 'Fakelite'. Patrick says that touch, sound and warmth all tell you if it is real.
So it is time to look again at those dusty old Bakelite items. If you want to get rid of it, you can always sell it.
And if you want to collect it, it will not cost a fortune.
* The Bakelite Museum, Somerset. Tel: 01984 632133. www.bakelitemuseum.co.uk
* The Science Museum, London. 0870 8704868. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
