Britain is obsessed by all things culinary, if our devotion to celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver is anything to go by. A knock-on effect, perhaps, has been the growth in popularity of kitchen antiques, or kitchenalia.

Although still inexpensive, the value of kitchenalia has soared over the past few decades. A Dover whisk (hand whisk) that would have cost about £5 in the 1970s would now fetch about £45.

Enthusiasts should not miss the chance to add to their collections at two events. On Thursday Simon Chorley Art & Antiques, based in Gloucestershire, is holding an auction that includes 50 lots from a collection built up by a single enthusiast over 37 years. Then Smithson Antiques, a specialist kitchenalia dealer, will be at the Antiques for Everyone fair at the NEC, Birmingham, from April 12 to 15.

Skip Smithson, of Smithson Antiques, says: “Kitchen implements as we know them today started in the Georgian period, but it was the Victorian era that really kicked them off. Victorian houses had huge kitchens with vast numbers of staff and they needed implements to cook with.”

And so came the era of copper stewpots, cast-iron tea kettles, peelers, graters, knives, flummery (blancmange) moulds, sugar nips (tongs), pastry cutters, spice columns, coffee mills, pepper mills, water pitchers, potato mashers, meat tenderisers, ice scoops, porridge spurtles (stirrers), oak thibles (spatulas), brass weights, egg cutters, cucumber slicers, colanders, butter markers, ham stands, mixing bowls and jelly moulds.

Mr Smithson adds: “Kitchenalia became collectible in the 1970s, as kitchens became more streamlined. Until then many kitchen implements were used daily and it was only when they were no longer needed in new kitchens that it occurred to people to collect them. People also realised that an old set of scales or kitchen jars could be used as attractive decorative items.”

Mr Chorley, however, sounds a note of caution: “Prices are down from their 1980s peak. That is partly because they rose too high but also because the Americans, who were especially keen collectors, now stay at home.”

Among the items that Mr Chorley is auctioning is a sweet-making machine, which would have been used in a sweet shop. Dating from the mid-19th century and about half the size of a tea chest, it has two blocks between which sweets would have been pressed. It has an estimate of £80 to £120.

The most expensive item in the sale is a set of corkscrews, at £100 to £150. Other curios include a 19th-century bread-maker, at £30 to £40, and a handle-operated chopper and grater, at £80 to £120.

Mr Smithson, meanwhile, has a wide range of butter moulds with illustrations that are imprinted in the butter, from £20 to £100, and a huge collection of bread boards, starting at £10. A bonus is that not only are these items collectible, they are still functional, too.

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