Why Buy a Cocktail Shaker

1. Because vintage cocktail shakers are cool 2. So you can make martinis

Cocktail shakers are always in style and never more so than now. The upswing in consumption of cosmopolitans during the 1990s was primarily due to the success of HBO's Sex and the City, but the link between cocktail shakers and the fashion and entertainment worlds is nothing new. In fact, cocktail shakers and culture have traditionally gone together like gin and vermouth.

Vintage cocktail shakers

The cocktail shaker has been around in some form since the late 19th Century, but it was in the post-Prohibition 1930s that it became the iconic object it is today. The cocktail shaker stood as the symbol of the Jazz Age lifestyle as portrayed in movies such as The Thin Man.

The cocktail shaker's sleek and trim shape was also uniquely suited to the Art Deco aesthetic of that era. Many of the vintage cocktail shakers that are highly prized today were manufactured in the 1930s.

Many of the most famous vintage cocktail shakers are on display at the Museum of the American Cocktail at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. A great many of the museum's rare cocktail shaker sets were made in the 1930s, including the Norman Bel Geddes-designed Manhattan cocktail shaker.

Thirteen inches in height and 3 1/4 inches in diameter, the museum’s Manhattan cocktail shaker is made of chrome-plated brass and is on display with four rare matching cups. As the cups were produced only between the years of 1936 and 1940, that particular cocktail shaker set is extremely rare and valued at over $10,000.

Rare cocktail shakers

Other vintage cocktail shakers are prized because of their rare or unique design. Examples could include a German cocktail shaker shaped like a dinner bell, or a strange 1920s cocktail shaker shaped like a rooster.

Some vintage cocktail shaker designs are more playful, such as a Napier cocktail shaker produced in the mid-1930s that resembles a penguin and comes with a complementary ice bucket. Or if you're one of those happy drinkers who likes to contemplate human mortality, a Maxwell-Phillip chrome hourglass cocktail shaker would provide a great visual aid.

Cocktail shaker types

By "cocktail shaker types," we don't mean the guy in your office who listens to Sinatra and wears bowling shirts with other people's names on them. There are two basic types of cocktail shakers, and when you're shopping it will be helpful to know the difference:

Cobbler shaker

Though it could also double as an Amish slang phrase for earthquake, cobbler shaker is actually the proper term for a standard three-piece cocktail shaker. Cobbler shakers come with a metal tumbler, a fitting lid, and a small cap that covers the strainer.

Boston shaker

A Boston shaker is a simpler variant on the cobbler shaker. The Boston shaker's lid doesn't have a built-in strainer, so it doesn't require a cap. A Boston shaker then is just a metal mixing tumbler and a smaller glass tumbler.

More information on shakers