Marion woman shakes up collecting world

MARION — Salt and pepper shakers pack the Anduss house — 1,930 pairs to be exact.

There is entire room dedicated to the dispensers.

But when Marlene and Reign Anduss moved into their new home in Marion, there wasn’t a single set full of salt nor pepper in the house.

Anduss, 72, collects salt and pepper shakers. She has for decades.

Marlene agreed to move to town if her husband would set aside a room for her massive shaker collection.

However, when it came time to make dinner, Reign had no shakers for the kitchen.

Marlene wouldn’t let him use any of her collection for practical culinary endeavors.

A simple glass set adorns their table.

Marlene said she first became fascinated with collecting salt and pepper shakers when she was a girl.

Her aunt had collection.

“I always liked them,” Marlene said. “When I was a young girl, and we would go over to aunt Irene’s house, I’d have to see them.”

A friend started her collecting in earnest. He would bring home a pair of shakers for her from vacation.

People discovered she was collecting and she would get a pair of shakers for her birthday, Christmas or an anniversary.

“Sometimes I think some people took them off their table to give to me because they knew I collected them,” she said.

When Marlene had collected about 500 shakers, she really caught the bug. She started going to auctions and estate sales and buying them for herself.

So the obsession began.

Anduss recently completed a catalog of all 1,930 pairs of salt and pepper shakers. No two

sets are a like.

But what catches a salt and pepper shaker collector’s eye?

Indeed Anduss has sets of all configurations — the Three Stooges, Marilyn Monroe, lobsters, Noah’s Ark, light bulbs and Lucille Ball in the chocolate factory.

“It has to be something I like,” Anduss said. “I don’t go for antiques or expensive. It

is just what I like.”

She has listed when ºshe bought or received them and where she got them. She also denotes if the shakers have boxes, which makes them more valuable, and the estimated valuable if she has access to that information.

“She has some shakers she bought for a couple bucks that are worth $14 or $15,” Reign Anduss said.

Most of her sets are in $10 range, but she has some that are worth more than $100.

Her most valued shaker is one of the first in her collection. It is a set of lanterns her father gave her when she was in school.

But for every collector there is always something to be sought. For Anduss, it is the completion of a set of ceramic state shakers.

Will Anduss ever quit collecting?

“Probably not,” she said. “I have slowed down a bit because I was not for sure what I had.”