Shaking it up: Israel's Salt and pepper shakers museum

Bar-on's exhibit includes shaker Santas, Christmas trees, toilet seats, animals, figures in traditional dress and even a ceramic Queen Elizabeth and her dog.

Eitan Bar-on stands next his collection of 37,000 pairs of shakers, displayed in a shack at the backyard of his home in Hadera, Israel December 12, 2018. Picture taken December 12, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS)
Eitan Bar-on stands next his collection of 37,000 pairs of shakers, displayed in a shack at the backyard of his home in Hadera, Israel December 12, 2018. Picture taken December 12, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/NIR ELIAS)
HADERA, Israel- There's a whole lotta shakin' goin' on at Eitan Bar-on's house.
Salt and pepper shakers, that is. Some 37,000 pairs are on display on floor-to-ceiling shelves in the museum the 58-year-old Israeli collector has opened in his backyard in the northern city of Hadera.
Bar-on's exhibit includes shaker Santas, Christmas trees, toilet seats, animals, figures in traditional dress and even a ceramic Queen Elizabeth and her dog.
He received most of the shakers as gifts or as donations from other collectors, and purchased the rest. "Everyone lives happily in this museum. Muslims, Christians, Jews, everyone," he said.
Bar-on began the collection in 2014 and he said representatives of the Guinness World Records were due to visit his 'Salt & Pepper Museum' soon.
He has digitally documented every shaker. The oldest dates back to 1703, and he said the most expensive was worth $17,000.
"I'm going to stop on forty thousand because I think that it's very difficult for people to handle with such a quantity of items and that's the limit," said Bar-on.