Ice popsicle maker

1955

USA

Earl S. Tupper

Polyethylene 

The Tupperware company, founded in the late 1940s, always kept on top of food trends and new innovations. Their product range did not stop at storage containers, but also included other objects and tools that benefit from the versatility and durability of plastic.

Domestic refrigeration only materialised in the early 20th century, with domestic freezing available from the 1940s. The 1950s was the true beginning of the company’s success, with the growing popularity of Tupperware parties, spearheaded by the pioneering finesse of their Vice President of Marketing, Brownie Wise.

By 1955, these ice popsicle makers were precisely the next fun thing a housewife needed to utilise the freezer to its best advantage, keeping young children – and therefore the family – happy. Before these moulds, popsicles would have only been available shop-bought as opposed to homemade. Earl S. Tupper’s contribution to the world of design is somewhat understated – his inventions and innovations with plastic are probably the most everlasting of our everyday objects, especially in the kitchen.1

  • 1. In my opinion, Earl Tupper is a seriously underrated designer. He is so overlooked just for the fact that the brand is synonymous with tupper parties or because they are items for something so banal as food storage. But he truly revolutionised the way people consumed food, and has contributed to mitigating food waste. Even though they are made of plastic (production processes that he pioneered also), they are meant to be reused for a lifetime. Mostly they are — it wasn’t until recently my mother swapped out her orange flowered set for more ‘contemporary’ ones. I was gutted! Besides food storage, he designed a myriad of objects such as the one pictured. One browsing session on Google Patents will confirm my statement of his importance to the field of design. -CM

Tools for Food (available 11/23 in the United States) tells the stories of design and culture behind kitchen implements from across the world, and how each and every one contributes to the way we eat, cook and live today. Pre-order your copy of the book from Book Larder (Seattle), Now Serving (Los Angeles), Kitchen Arts & Letters (NYC), or from a fine independent retailer new you.