When we cleaned out my grandmother’s house, in her bedroom I found a wooden butterfly napkin holder with correspondence on her bedside table. I still have that napkin holder, and it has reverted to its original function, holding paper napkins on top of the refrigerator where everyone can find them. I think of her when I get a napkin. I have no idea where she got the napkin holder, and it may well have been a “thank you” gift from some charity she sent money, for I found other small items of that nature as well during the clearing process. Whatever its source, now it is a part of my family.

I bought a Talavera pottery napkin holder on a trip with my mother in Mexico, and gave it to her as a memento. She has it sitting on a window sill, and I’m sure it reminds her of our trip when she sees it, as it does me. When we start clearing her house I intend to scarf it up as well. I’m sure no one else wants it, but I will fight for it if someone gets there first.

Napkin holders are personal or family property that can become imbued with meaning beyond their utility, as you have read. But they also make an unusual collectible, as they are not available at every turn. Looking for a napkin holder on trips can give you an excuse to wander stores and markets, where you will not actually be presented with enormous numbers to choose from, allowing you to cover a lot of territory with little expenditure and a clear conscious (I have trouble leaving a store without buying something). Gift shops or department stores may have crystal or metal napkin holders, both for your collection and as different wedding presents, and one that is unlikely to be duplicated.

Once you have a swarm of napkin holders, besides being displayed as a collection, you can use them. Holding napkins in the kitchen and on the dining table, and small drink napkins on the bar and coffee table. Use one for outgoing mail, and incoming mail if you can find one sized to your flow of incoming mail. Even small magazines can use a napkin holder as a magazine rack. Anywhere you need to keep a group of envelopes or small pieces of paper together, a napkin holder can help. Blank paper for notes, notes taken and needed to be kept at hand, bills to be paid, receipts before they get transported to the monthly or annual file. Letters that need to be answered, Christmas cards from last year that you need to reply to this Christmas, recipes you want to try before you file them as good, family pictures that need to be put in a photo book. There are a lot of places a napkin holder can help you corral the paper of your life.

Given the usually gentle use that napkin holders get, they need only stand up against time. I suppose the occasional one dies to breakage, being dropped on the floor or stood on, but for the most part the napkin holder you get today you will have forever. So the use of metal is more for looks than necessity. For the modern or industrial interior, there are stainless steel napkin holders, and for more frilly settings there are flowered china napkin holders. Silver napkin holders can be engraved for a special occasion or with the recipients monogram. Brass, any kind of wood, molded or cut glass, the possibilities are endless.

Keep an eye out and see what kind are available around you. Check garage sales, rummage sales and resale shops, as well as stores with new merchandise. You could be starting a collection different from any other in your family.

* * * Read about wire racks or kitchen shelves to organize your home. * * *

Go to the Table of Contents to see all the topics covered so far.

Click American collectibles to go to the latest entry on this site.