Spice up your life with some super salt and pepper pots

For some, amassing these dinner table classics becomes a bit of an obsession. One family in Tennessee, for example, has a collection of more than 40,000 pairs and have opened a museum to them.

If four cruet sets sounds like quite a lot, let alone 40,000, you can easily try your hand at picking up a few on the cheap, or just buy a sensible pair for practical purposes. Below we review some of the wild and wonderful shakers going under the hammer soon on thesaleroom.com.

Art Deco aeroplane

This 1950s Art Deco style cruet set (above) is in the form of a Second World War aeroplane, with the shakers, featuring blue glass liners, stored on the wings. It has an estimate of £30-50 at Mendip Auction Rooms on June 13.

Historic set

These pots have an estimate of £30-50 at Stamford Auction Rooms on June 27.

Before the advent of shakers, salt and pepper usually came to the table in cellars. The production and use of shakers didn’t become common on the 1920s (although the earliest examples date to the mid-1800s). Hallmarked for Chester 1898, these pots have an estimate of £30-50 at Stamford Auction Rooms on June 27.

Kitsch Classics

This pair of Only Fools and Horses salt and pepper shakers have an estimate of £25-40 at East Bristol Auctions on June 19.

You could also go for one of the many kitschy ceramic shakers out there, such as this Only Fools and Horses pair. Modelled as Del Boy and Rodney dressed as superheroes, the pair have an estimate of £25-40 at East Bristol Auctions on June 19.

Wartime relic

These silver novelty shakers from 1916 have an estimate of £200-300.

This pair of George V silver novelty shakers are shaped like bullets and are hallmarked for Lee & Wigfull, Sheffield, 1916, the midst of the First World War. They are included in Hutchinson Scott’s two-day sale running from June 19-20 and have an estimate of £200-300.

Frog wild

This pair of Elizabeth II silver salt and pepper-shakers has an estimate of £200-300 at Tennants.

You don’t have to look far in most collections to find shakers shaped like animals, and if you’re interested in this particularly pair, which has an estimate of £200-3000, you’ll probably be investing in a top collection. These Elizabeth II shakers by Whitehill Silver and Plate Co., Birmingham, were made in 2007, and each frog features glass eyes. The pair goes under the hammer at Tennants on June 27.