As a collector of all things vintage, it is hard sometimes to pick favorites. However, for me the choice is easy; Pyrex is the favorite. I have collected Pyrex for about 10 years and have developed quite the collection. Most common patterns and pieces I have so to have something really special come way is a rare treat.
Treasure hunting has a lot of perks but nothing takes the cake like the people you meet and the stories you hear along the way. Dealers and collectors build relationships that form a very electic club or community to which I am happy to belong. Through my "community" I was able to meet Canadian Cheryl or the pen lady as I sometimes refer to her because of her passion for collecting pens. Cheryl and her husband travel each year to Southern California to escape the coldest winter months and soak up the sun. Cheryl loves to find treasures from estate sales to auctions which is how we met.
So, hearing from Cheryl the middle of July came as a surprise. However, I knew it had to be good, when she said she found some interesting Pyrex at a local thrift store.
Cheryl writes:
This so NEVER happens to me! I was in a thrift store yesterday and spotted this Pyrex set. I knew Gooseberry, I knew Cinderella and I knew turquoise, but it wasn't till I got it home that I saw it was the English JAJ Crown Pyrex which you lust after. THEN I found out how rare the bloody thing is. What do you think? I bought it to use, but now I'm not so sure! I 've attached 2 pictures, but can send more if you'd like a better look.
You can imagine my excitement to see these in the photo. I emailed her back wanting more photos and asked more detailed question about condition. But the biggest question I had is are these for sale and how much?! A few email exchanges later we had determined that she wanted to sell and I wanted to buy. I knew Cheryl was about to do really well on her recent find but I told her to hold off telling me the entire story until after we had worked out a fair deal for both of us. The end result is I did get my coveted bowls and I paid up for them, but I believe was fair deal. But wait until you hear Cheryl's entire story.
Cheryl writes:
Here’s the story. I volunteer at a cancer resource centre in Oshawa and also crochet small blankets for their paediatric cancer programme. Kids get chilly when they’re having chemo and each child gets their own “bankie” to cuddle under. Yarn is a bit costly, so I go into thrift stores, buy old crochet or knitted blankets, undo them and re-use the yarn. In Ontario there’s a chain of thrift stores called Value Village (Valoo Villàge or the Vee-Vee Boutique to the regulars – kinda like Tarzjay), the diabetic society collect clothes and household items, sell them to VV as a fund raiser and then VV re-sells them. The stores are all big, bright and well laid out, not the cheapest, but not unpleasant to shop in. So, there I was last week, I found two nice big blankets and thought “I’ll check the kitchen-ware aisle”, there at the end of a shelf priced at $12.99 (sorry), was a Pyrex Cinderella set. My kitchen has turquoise accents and I thought I’d buy it for myself. I have a Cinderella set in Homestead and a newer (non-Cinderella) set in 4 shades of blue that are my regular bowls. When I got home, did the research and found out what I had, I re-thought things! l suspect that the bowls came over here in the 50’s or 60’s with a woman who emigrated from the UK, a lot of the things at VV are donated by families emptying out parents’ homes if they can’t be bothered to yard sale the stuff. She obviously never had a dishwasher and maybe she wasn’t much of a cook, that’s why they got such little use. Who knows. If it had been a fabulous piece of Fire King Philbe though, I would have been reluctant to sell, THAT.
So that's the story of the $12.99 Turquoise Gooseberry Pyrex found in a Canadian thrift. Notice she said sorry in her email. Yep, Cheryl got a great return but I am so happy she thought of me instead of ebay! I got a fair deal and we kept it in the family lol. Here are my bowls that arrived safe and sound thanks to careful packing.
In the Pyrex in pantry with all the other Pyrex friends! Special thanks to Cheryl for thinking of me. It was also a great reminder of the wonderful community of collectors that I get to be apart of and that my next treasure may show up in one their hands. Now to find a coveted pen that Cheryl will want....lol
Have A Wonderful Cherry Picked Week Y'all!
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