Posted 2 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
I **think** these are three "French Press" coffee making things and a sugar/creamer pair. I *thought* they'd all be marked by the same maker -- that's *not* true. Pic 2 shows the three coffee makers have marks on the glass "melior MADE IN FRANCE" on the sides near their bottoms (normally behind the handle, for some reason?) but the sugar/creamer have "BODIUM Heat-resistant DENMARK" in the center of their bottoms. The metal (stainless steel, probably) cages and bakelite (?) handles all appear identically and well made and are all totally unmarked. I have no idea how old they are, 1970's maybe?? That's all I can tell y'all about them.
Until the time I might be able to research what they really are, can anybody offer a quick clue or direction I should go searching for??
AnythingObscure, Ain't nothin quick about this. >8-0
To quote Peter O'Toole as Henry II out of context, "It's a bit of a tangle."
I thought it was Bodum that came up with that style of 'french' coffee press with the borosilicate glass container, but no, it was Melior, and Bodum bought the concept in 1991:
https://www.bodum.com/us/en/1928-16us4-chambord
An early coffee press invention by Ugo Paolini, patented in the US in 1929 by Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1797672A/en
Having trouble running down the Melior (which is Latin for "better") patent. I see a lot of familiar-looking coffee press patents out there from the 1950s and 1960s, but not Melior so far.
I'll see what I can find later today (errands call).
Ugh. This should not have been so difficult.
The name "Melior" does not appear in the patent:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2900896A/en
"Melior" is the brand name chosen by inventor Faliero Bondanini once he began to manufacture his invention:
*snip*
THE VERY BEGINNING It was at the great Milan international fair in 1933, when the famous MELIOR coffee maker was discovered by the European-Italian entrepreneur Faliero Bondanini. He was fascinated by the coffee press system and saw great potential in this new technology.
TRADITION AND EXPERIENCE In the '50s, Bondanini started production of the coffee maker in a clarinet factory called Martin S.A. in France. Having produced the finest classical clarinets in Europe since 1740, only the best materials were used in the past and still are today.
*snip*
https://issuu.com/melior/docs/melior_brochure_2009/3
Considering the number of people of Italian extraction involved in the invention of the modern coffee press, perhaps we should be calling it the Italian coffee press.
One more patent, this one French, and from 1852:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cafetiere_1852_(Mayer_%26_Delforge).jpg
It didn't create a seal, so it was ripe for improvement.