Posted 8 years ago
MCRobert
(26 items)
These super cool midcentury trays were made in Monterey California by another husband/wife midcentury design team, Guthrie Courviosier and Moira Wallace who hired local artisans during the 50's and 60's to create unique designs from re-use/re-purposed items - brass bits, springs, screws, glitter all found their way into many Couroc Tray designs.
The Couroc Company in Monterey California produced many different types and shapes of trays, boxes, ashtrays and glassware from 1948 until their closure in the early 1990s.
Couroc Cheese Tray
I found this one at the Marin goodwill and the image is made of flattened brass wire coil, a sliver of driftwood and brass letters!
Couroc Serving Tray
Another Couroc which I had to grab off the bottom shelf at the Goodwill and though faded and with a dull finish, was not scratched so I brought it home - does 2 make a collection? Hmmmm. I love the use of brass to indicate the parrots song - so creative!
The finish on the serving tray was dull and gray so I googled how others had cleaned these phenolic plastic works of art and learned that phenolic plastic was first manufactured under the trade name Bakelite after the inventor of the plastic Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland.
Seems there are several methods to shine up this early plastic, all of which involve some some combination of a fine rubbing compound (grit) to remove the oxidised layer exposing a new layer of unoxidised resin, and elbow grease!
Metal Polish / Brasso / Simichrome Polish can be used, but are relatively coarse abrasives, we chose the chrome polish method and it seems to work fine for the Couroc trays.
They came up well. So amusing and cool!
I thought so too, the chrome polish pulled years of oxidation off the surface of the trays leaving them shiny and bright. I particularly like that they re-used old bits of odds and ends to such wonderful purpose.