To many, salt and pepper shakers are nothing more than kitchen utensils, used solely to enhance the flavoring of food. But to Jean Rowe, salt and pepper shakers are works of art.

“When I met my husband in 1979, he and his mother collected (novelty salt and pepper shakers), and I thought they were crazy,” Rowe said. “But then we went to a convention, and I fell in love.”

That convention was in 1988 in Battle Creek. It was the third ever Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers Club annual convention, and Rowe hasn’t missed a convention since.

In the years since that first convention she attended, she has amassed a collection of nearly 10,000 pairs of salt and pepper shakers — all that she keeps in her Silver Creek Township home.

Shakers line the walls and cabinets of the main level of her home, and Rowe has transformed her basement into a museum of shakers, organized by style, genre, size and more.

One shelf has shakers that look like Elvis Presley. Another is entirely cartoon characters, from Maxine to The Simpsons. In the back are racks of shakers that look like vegetables across from racks of shakers that look like snowmen. There are two shelving units devoted to Pillsbury shakers, and shelves that have shakers that look like mice. Those mice better watch out, though, for just a few shelves over are shakers that look like cats.

And that’s only a fraction of the different kinds of shakers that Rowe proudly shows off.

“I’m running out of room, as you can tell,” Rowe said.

To just walk through the basement takes around 20 minutes, but to explore and examine every pair would take hours — and those are just the ones she has room for on her displays.

“(Collectors) aren’t necessarily on the lookout for shakers, we’re on the lookout for shelving,” Rowe said.

She said that before moving to Silver Creek Township, she lived 11 years in a one-room apartment in Chicago.

“Can you believe that?” she said, surrounded by her shakers. “I guess when I moved, I went crazy… I don’t know.”

Collectors, or as Rowe calls them, “salt and pepper people,” are a very tight knit community. This year’s convention was held in Washington, D.C. and attracted 200 of the 500 international salt and pepper people that make up the membership of the Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers Club.

“People come from Belgium, England, New Zealand, Australia and more,” Rowe said. “Some of them have very rare shakers. I had a nice time.”

Rowe said that the club is always interested in attracting new members, especially young members.

“We have a junior membership that’s free up to age 18,” she said.

Other memberships range from $5 per year to $35 per year, depending on level of membership and location. Membership benefits include different newsletters, attending conventions and more.

Membership benefits also include the ability to advertise shakers for sale in the newsletters, but you won’t find anything from Rowe’s collection for sale.

“I don’t want to sell any of them,” she said. “I’m a retired state employee with a pension, and that’s enough for me … These are more works of art than they are anything else.”

Having no children of her own, Rowe said that her “heiress” is her niece, who she thinks will likely sell the collection.

“Some of my shakers are worth $500, a few, but some are only worth $3,” Rowe said. “In the long run, I think they’ll average out to about $5 a pair.”

For now, Rowe is happy showing her collection off to anyone that stops by. She expressed her strong love of the salt and pepper shaker collector community and how close a family they really are — and she’s always excited for new members to become a part of the community.

“You’ll probably want to start collecting, too.”

For more information on the Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers Club, visit saltandpepperclub.com. Information on the Michigan chapter can be found at michigansaltandpepperclub.com.