Mid Century Modern Glass, Acrylic, and Stainless Steel Cocktail Shaker and Pitcher. Glass pitcher has acrylic holder/handle. Glass cocktail shaker has steel top with a screw cap for easy pouring. 

Condition: Very good shape. 

Largest Size: 7 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. 

The cocktail shaker can be traced to 7000 BC in pre-Hispanic Mexico and South America, where the jar gourd was used as a closed container. Egyptians as long ago as 3500 BC added spices to their fermented grain concoctions and swirled them in vessels with small mouths before serving to make them more palatable. In 1520 Hernán Cortés wrote to King Charles V of Spain of a drink made from cacao, served to Montezuma with much reverence, frothy and foaming from a golden cylinder. By the mid 19th Century the cocktail shaker as we now know it was in wide use, and according to legend it was invented by an innkeeper who, while using two containers to pour drinks back and forth between, noticed that one container’s mouth was smaller than the other’s, and held the two together and shook them “for a bit of a show.” Rapid design advancement occurred during the late 19th Century, with several patent improvements including the addition of integral strainer mechanisms to shakers. During the 1920s prohibition era in the United States, cocktail shakers were produced in many different shapes and designs, including shakers that looked like penguins, zeppelins, lighthouses and airplanes, as well as objects that could easily be disguised from nosy cops. Cocktail shaker skills and drink rituals became as important in the Jazz Age lifestyle as knowing the latest dance step. It was after prohibition, however, that cocktail shakers really reached their zenith of popularity, appearing in movies and associated with the glamorous lives of movie stars. The era of the cocktail shaker faltered seriously as the United States entered World War II, and all non-essential uses of metal were redirected towards the war effort. In the early 50s cocktail shakers enjoyed a brief resurgence as soldiers familiar with them returned and became part of the housing boom featuring rec rooms with bars. Cocktail shakers became de rigueur symbols of sophistication and symbols of the good life, with the phrase “Shaken, not stirred” entering the lexicon thanks to the drink preference of James Bond, the pinnacle of male sex symbols throughout the 60s. By the late 70s, though, shakers were quickly giving way to modern electric appliances that either added a mixing unit to the shaker’s lid or did away with the shaker entirely, with the introduction of the electric blender. The collapse of the bourbon industry from the 80s up until the mid 2000s also dampened the use of the tool, but from the late 2000s onward mixed drinks in bars made a significant comeback among college students and retiring Boomers nostalgic for the drinks they grew up with, and the shaker is once again one of the most important tools in a well-trained bartender’s arsenal.

Very good shape.