Kitchen Cubs
Chipper polar-bear helpers on sculpted icebergs — one of Holt-Howard’s rarest and most intriguing experimental kitchen lines, introduced in 1958.
Introduced in Holt-Howard’s 1958 catalog, Kitchen Cubs was an unusually ambitious collection of whimsical polar-bear kitchen accessories built around the company’s familiar combination of humor and function. Wide-eyed white cubs with pink ears, expressive faces, and blue polka-dot scarves climb, perch, peek, and play across sculpted iceberg forms accented with pale blue detailing. The result is a line in which the bears are not simply decoration—the function of each object becomes part of a miniature scene.
Kitchen Cubs appears never to have progressed into normal full-scale production. Holt-Howard co-founder Robert Howard later recalled that new items could pass through mold-sample and test-run stages before the company decided whether to proceed. Surviving Kitchen Cubs are consequently exceptionally scarce, and most known examples lack a standard Holt-Howard backstamp, instead being unmarked or retaining the simple blue-and-white rectangular “Japan” label associated with sample and test-run merchandise.
Despite that limited production history, the line was developed far beyond the concept stage. A surviving 1958 dealer catalog sheet presents eight numbered Kitchen Cubs products with prices and descriptions, while two additional accessories—the “Bear in Mind” memo holder and the wall-mounted string holder—are documented in later collector research. Together they make up the ten presently known Kitchen Cubs product forms documented by the Archive.
The 1958 Dealer Catalog
For a line that appears never to have reached ordinary full-scale production, this catalog page is unusually important evidence: the designs had progressed far enough to receive catalog numbers, dealer photography, pricing, and sales copy.
The Kitchen Cubs Collection
“Butter Berg” Covered Butter Dish
The low, horizontal “Butter Berg” turns an ordinary covered butter dish into a miniature frozen landscape. A single Kitchen Cub rests against the face of the sculpted iceberg lid while the molded cracks and ridges are picked out with pale-blue brushwork. The words “butter berg” appear across the front of the base in Holt-Howard’s playful lowercase lettering.
The piece measures approximately 6¼ inches long by 1½ inches high. Holt-Howard’s 1958 catalog identifies it as item 7010 and originally priced it at $1.00 each.
Napkin Holder with Salt & Pepper Shakers
This ingenious three-piece table set combines a vertical napkin holder with two matching Kitchen Cubs salt-and-pepper shakers. The small cubs sit on either side of a peaked, A-frame iceberg wall, turning the entire set into a compact little polar scene rather than merely attaching character heads to a conventional serving piece.
The 1958 dealer catalog lists the set as item 7013, describes it as a “Napkin Holder with salt ’n pepper set”, gives a height of approximately 4 inches, and prices the complete set at $1.00.
Cream Crock, Sugar Crock & Saccharine Server
This ingenious three-piece serving set turns two everyday table containers into a pair of miniature icebergs. A small cub climbs the handle of the Cream Crock, while the covered Sugar Crock is topped by a seated cub whose base forms a separate saccharine server.
The saccharine compartment was designed to hold tablets and dispense them through a small opening in the lid. The Cream Crock measures approximately 3 inches high, while the Sugar Crock stands approximately 4½ inches high. Holt-Howard’s 1958 dealer catalog sold the complete three-piece set for $1.25.
Egg Cups with Seasoners
One of the cleverest Kitchen Cubs designs is this four-piece breakfast set, in which the cub-topped covers perform two jobs. Placed over the square bases, they help keep boiled eggs warm; lifted off and inverted, they function as salt-and-pepper seasoners.
The cub covers stand approximately 4 inches tall, while the bases measure approximately 2½ inches square. The 1958 dealer catalog emphasized the same “double-duty” idea and offered the complete four-piece set for $1.00.
Spoon Rest & Recipe Card Holder
This elongated iceberg is both a spoon rest and a recipe-card holder, and it may be the clearest example in the Kitchen Cubs line of Holt-Howard making the function of the object part of the joke. One cub stands beside the hand-lettered instruction “hold recipe here”, while another peers down into the spoon basin.
The basin itself becomes a tiny icy pool, painted with blue ripples and the cub’s reflected face, completing the little scene of a bear discovering himself in the water below. Holt-Howard’s 1958 catalog identifies the piece as a spoon rest that is “a recipe holder too,” measures it at approximately 7½ inches long, and originally priced it at $1.00 each.
Ashtray with Cigarette Urn & Match Holder
This compact smoking accessory turns an iceberg into a miniature polar-bear scene. A broad ash basin fills the center, while a large cub rises from the rear corner and a smaller cub sits at the front edge.
The larger cub is hollow at the top to serve as the cigarette urn, while the base incorporates space for matches and a strike pad. Holt-Howard’s 1958 dealer catalog identifies the piece as an ashtray with cigarette urn and match-pad holder, measures it at approximately 4¾ inches, and originally priced it at $1.00 each.
Iceberg Pitcher
The Kitchen Cubs pitcher is one of the line’s largest and most sculptural pieces, transforming a tall beverage pitcher into a vertical glacier. Two cubs climb the molded ice face: one clings to the front while the second peers out from the handle side.
The 1958 dealer catalog promoted it “for family pouring pleasure,” with a capacity of 36 ounces. Surviving measurements place it at approximately 7¼ inches high, and the original catalog price was $1.50 each.
“Shake and Listen” Salt & Pepper Shakers
This larger salt-and-pepper pair gives the Kitchen Cubs concept an extra gimmick: the shakers were designed not only to season food, but also to “chatter” when shaken. One cub sits while the other stands, each on its own sculpted iceberg base.
Circular metal mechanisms built into the bottoms create the sound effect, and the photographed pair retains the simple rectangular Japan labels associated with Kitchen Cubs sample and test-run pieces. Holt-Howard’s 1958 catalog called them “Shake and listen Cubs really chatter!” and lists the pair at approximately 4½ inches high, originally priced at $1.00 per set.
“Bear in Mind” Memo Holder
This wall-mounted memo holder brings the Kitchen Cubs character into the same household-organizer territory explored elsewhere in Holt-Howard’s novelty lines. A large cub frames the note pad, while a side loop holds a pencil and the molded base carries the punning inscription “bear in mind.”
The surviving example measures approximately 7¼ inches high and was designed to hang on a wall. Period examples are known with a blue-and-black calendar pencil and a printed note pad reading, “I’m your Kitchen Cub… another labor-saver.” Unlike the eight numbered Kitchen Cubs products shown on the surviving 1958 dealer catalog page, no catalog number has yet been confirmed for this piece.
String Holder
This wall-mounted utility piece reduces the Kitchen Cub to an oversized smiling head, with the hollow interior serving as a container for kitchen twine or string. The cord feeds through the small opening at the mouth, turning the cub itself into part of the dispensing mechanism.
The blue scarf extends into an open loop at the side, providing a convenient place to hang scissors alongside the string. The piece measures approximately 4½ inches high by 4¾ inches wide. As with the “Bear in Mind” memo holder, no catalog number has yet been confirmed for this design.
Chipper, Cute, and Created to Serve
Kitchen Cubs may have been one of Holt-Howard’s shortest-lived experiments, but it is also one of the clearest examples of the company’s ability to turn ordinary household objects into miniature comic scenes. Across the line, the polar bears do more than decorate pitchers, butter dishes, spoon rests, and serving pieces—they climb the icebergs, peer into pools, hold recipes, dispense string, and become part of the function of the objects themselves.
The surviving 1958 catalog confirms eight numbered products, while the “Bear in Mind” memo holder and string holder bring the presently documented line to ten known forms. The unexplained gap between catalog numbers 7010 and 7013 leaves open the intriguing possibility that these two unnumbered pieces may once have carried the missing numbers 7011 and 7012, although no surviving documentation has yet established which, if either, belonged to them.