Pair of Silverplate "Tells You How" Cocktail Shakers

second quarter 20th century, by the Napier Co., Meriden, Connecticut, designed in 1932 by Le Roy Haviland Fontan (1891-1964), of slightly tapering cylindrical form, the gilt insert engraved around the rim with the names of sixteen cocktails and turning to reveal the ingredients for each in the cut-out windows on the body below, with ogee-domed strainer cap and domed lid.
h. 10-3/4", dia. 3-3/4"

Literature: Stephen Visakay, Vintage Bar Ware (Paducah, Kentucky: Collector Books, 1997), pp. 79-80 (illustrated).
Simon Khachadourian, The Cocktail Shaker (London: Philip Wilson, 2000), pp. 97-98 (illustrated).

Notes: The "Tell-You-How" cocktail shaker was one of the most popular and useful of the 1930s. Designed in 1932 and patented in 1935, it was offered at Saks Fifth Avenue for $7.50 (about $100 today). The concept was imitated in England, France, Italy and many other countries.

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