This crude cruet set is one of many fantastic plastic objects in our Social History collections. Two chamber pots have salt and pepper shakers inside them, and the toilet holds the mustard. It even has a small slit in the lid to hold a mustard spoon.

In the 1950s, plastics began to feature in all parts of life. Chairs, cutlery, radios, cameras….the possibilities were endless (as this cruet set shows)! Plastic melamine tableware was even more expensive than ceramics.

There are more than 60 different types of plastic. What they have in common is that they can all be moulded. In fact natural materials like horn and rubber have been moulded into different shapes for over 200 years. The Victorians developed semi-synthetic plastics because of a shortage of these natural materials. From the early 1900s, Bakelite and other completely artificial plastics became quite cheap and very popular.

This cruet set is made of cellulose acetate, a semi – synthetic plastic introduced after the First World War. It was developed to replace cellulose nitrate, which could burst into flames.

Would you eat mustard from a toilet?