Grandma's Pyrex

My grandparents lived in West Virginia and my grandmother passed away a couple of years ago. One of my uncles had been living in her house until he passed away last fall. Now my father and uncles have been working on closing out the house and just this month my dad made a trip back east to haul home some family goods. I put in my request: any old glassware and the Hoosier cabinet.

Here's some (but not all, this is a Pyrex blog, lol) of the glassware I got.

Butterfly Gold 501s and some Woodland that is hidden. Grandma didn't have a dishwasher and the Woodland was pretty covered in gook. It enjoyed two days of soaking in oven cleaner, outside and inside the bowls. 

The is pretty funny; my dad was unloading the trailer and opened a box and handed the 503 and lids to me with a big smile on his face. He knew I couldn't wait to get at everything. My daughter was with me and she said, "That's a Butterfly Gold 503, Grandpa!" I have trained her well. My mom aid they found this in the back of a closet. That's my mom, looking out for her daughter's Pyrex addiction. 

This pink 401 is so shiny! It was covered in ack as you can see i n this picture. It enjoyed an overnight soak in oven cleaner and is now squeaky clean and like new. It does have some nicks but they were made with love by my grandma, I am sure. 

You can see a picture of the Hoosier cabinet here. It's going to be a bit of a restoration project for me but I am pretty thrilled to have it. 

Happy hunting!

Jacquelyn

Pyrex Passion

I requested the book Pyrex Passion for the holidays this year: ask and you shall receive! I realize it's been almost half a year since I acquired it and I never posted anything about it. I remember at least one or two people wrote something about the book here when it first came out, but I wanted to offer my own two cents (or about $50 as the case is with the cost of this thing...!) 

The good news for those of you who don't want to shell out $49.99... it looks like the price dropped to $39.99 for the book, AND there is now an iPad version available for $19.99. 

I enjoyed reading through the book and I appreciated how thorough the author was in listing what kind of pieces came in which patterns. I recently sold several pieces of Spring Blossom and a few other miscellaneous patterns that I wasn't collecting. I was thankful the book had a section on when everything was manufactured, since I was able to tell the vendor right then and there the information she requested. It was also helpful to see what the pieces were roughly worth. 

Personally though, I found that the prices quoted at the back have since skyrocketed at least at the antique stores near me. (Then again, most of those pieces of Pyrex have sat on shelves for the past year collecting dust...)

One other quirk I found with the book was that there was nothing about any of the Pyrex plates, cups and bowls that I'm personally passionate about, like these pink ones, or these turquoise ones.

I realize that the title is a 'comprehensive guide to decorated vintage Pyrex'... but I was at least hoping for a little something more about Pyrex tableware and dinner plates. There's also nothing about the See 'N' Store Canisters. But, if you want to see my See 'N' Store collection, check out this post. 

Meanwhile, I'm going to continue to enjoy eating and drinking out of this Pyrex, regardless of how little I know about it. 

What about you... do you have a copy of Pyrex Passion? What do you think? 

Happy Pyrexing, people... may you find the pieces that stoke your passion! 

Brenda

Recent Finds

Earlier this week my husband and little miss made me go camping. I am not a camper but I agreed provided I could hit some thrifts along the way. I seriously had the iPad out and was googling places to stop as we drove. My husband was very amenable. I did pretty well in some of the small towns we passed through. I would have liked to have gone to more but snow, yes snow, was in the forecast and after one night in below freezing temperatures we all decided to go home. Here's what I did get, photographed at the campsite before I carefully packed it away for the trip home. I was thinking ahead and brought along some boxes and bubble wrap to keep them safe (and warm) in the back of the truck.

That's an unmarked Opal 401 (mold stamp number says 2, so it's an early one), Blue Stripes 403, and Pink 503 with the older lid. I was pretty happy! It's my second Pink 503 but I'm keeping it. The other one is for display, this is for my 503 stack, the size I use most for leftovers. I couldn't resist the Fire King Colonial Bands grease jar, even without the lid. It took what seemed like a metric ton of stops to get these four items, but they are all pretty minty so it was worth stumbling through the maps app. Not pictured is a JAJ Harvest casserole I found; I;m not yet sure what I am doing with it.

A couple days after our ill fated camping trip little miss and I did a thrift run. She spotted the below, which is wonderful since she collects the Pink Gooseberry in this house.

A trunk shot, I was that happy. This set is pretty minty which made me even happier. I cam home from purchasing these and traded away the set little miss already had for some new goodies for me.

This is the second week in a row I have stumbled on a Sunday yard sale and come away with some Pyrex. Recall Sunday is not a typical yard sale day here, so I am wondering if a new trend is starting.  I guess we'll see what happens next Sunday before I get too excited. Last Sunday yielded up some Butterprint fridges, this Sunday I came away with the below.

Yes dear readers, another car shot. I snapped this one while husband and little miss were checking out yet another yard sale we found, sadly one without Pyrex. Anyway, this find was a total fluke. In fact, there was more I left behind. I wasn't carrying more than a few dollars since I wasn't on the yard sale prowl, just out running errands. I had to use my emergency $20 to get this, and I got to keep my few dollars I already had. I bundled as much as I could into that $20!

So as you can see I did get some good stuff. Of course, since my mantra is "No fridgie left behind" I could not leave the 501s. I've already traded those. The two 403s I will keep. I had thought I would offload my Butterprint but I really like the size of the 403 when I am cooking. The Friendship is a no brainer and I needed it to start in on the mixing bowl set. The Snowflake Garland 475 is a double for me, I will try and trade or sell it when the holidays get closer and everyone wants snowflakes.

Husband and little miss waited in the car while I hit the sale and when I told him there was more and I didn't have enough money to get it all he tried to give me some cash. What a guy. I was okay leaving though, as what I left behind was nothing I really wanted/needed/wanted to hang on to for trade or sale. Hopefully another Pyrex lover found the sale. The funny thing about this yard sale is I was talking to the proprietor and she told me she used to have a lot of Pyrex. She kept some for herself, her kids took some, and now she was selling the remainder. I can only imagine what she kept and gave to her kids prior to the sale.

So, a pretty good week for me. Hopefully you all had some luck as well.

Jacquelyn

Birthday Thrift Crawl 2014!

Hello PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

Every year for my birthday, I take an entire Saturday and do a thrift crawl- I try to visit as many thrift stores as I can over the course of a whole day. These are the stores that are a bit farther away, that I don't usually have time to get to during the week. This year's big event actually fell on my birthday this year, March 1st! I got to 6 stores over about 40 miles in 4 hours.

Of course, I am looking for Pyrex first and foremost. The Butterprint 401 and the unmarked green 403 are duplicates for me, so they went over to the booth. I have been looking for this green for a long time, because it enabled me to complete an unmarked primary set for the booth- I have had no luck selling them separately so will try it this way. It's in great condition- amazing for being close to 70 years old!

I found the square flowers 473 at my first stop- and it was a gold mine for Pyrex! Also at that same store I found an unmarked opal 403, and a pixie. This is the second birthday thrift crawl in a row where I found pixies, and I have never found them any other time, go figure. 

I also found this sad excuse for a pink stripe 401

...but it was only 99 cents so I couldn't leave it there. And I don't know about you, but I have never seen pink stripes in person, so yeah, I'll bring it home and love it. But look what I found the next week (last week, at a different store)- mommy stripe! And this one is near perfect! Who knew? Pink stripes in the wild!

I also found this Golden Wreath 043 promo last week. It's in near mint condition except for a chip at the bottom- probably happened in the donation bin, I can only assume. I have run out of room for 043s, so I am going to list it in my Etsy store. It's nice and shiny- just hard to show in photos. Check it out!

And since you all are great Pyrex friends, I am offering a discount coupon of 20% (good on anything, not just Pyrex)- enter coupon code PIT20OFF at checkout.

 Cheers! 

First Pyrex Finds of the New Year

I've had some good finds over the last few days…I've only been able to head out in drips and drabs since Christmas as I have been under the weather, and my philosophy is, if I am too sick to go to the gym, I am too sick to thrift. It keeps me honest.

So I found a Green Wheat Space Saver. I didn't crop this picture so you all could understand how random this find was. I rounded a corner and saw what looked like green glass poking out behind a bunch of plastic goods on the very back corner of a bottom shelf. I got down and pulled out this space saver. You can see the chaos of the shelves. I then spent a good ten minutes on the floor, moving everything around trying to locate a lid, but alas, no luck. 

I couldn't believe I found a Hostess with a lid. Both pieces are extremely minty! The cake pan is a minty Desert Dawn, which is a fun find. I am a big baker (even been to the Betty Crocker Kitchens on General Mills' dime!) and was thrilled to add this to my set of cake pans, which for whatever reason do not stack well. The Bluebird is so fun and me, I am a big fan of bird motifs. It's not the most covetable of promotions but I was sure happy to find it!

I hope your hunting is going well!

Jacquelyn

Pink, blue and a promo

Got a few little scores last week.  Nothing much has been surfacing here. I skipped out on the antique flea market today that would have been a guaranteed source of Pyrex. I took the morning instead to sleep in as it is the first time in 5 years I could, in my own bed (kid stayed with his grandpa!) I figured someone else could use a good score.

 I don't know why but the horizon blue looks so great with my friendships. 

Check out the rest of my blog for more treasures.

treasuresmyhh.blogspot.com

Happy Hunting

~Katie

Treasure Hunter

Recent Finds…I've Had a Stroke of Luck

I've been busy thrifting and hitting yard/estate/garage sales. It's just starting to cool down here (as in, it was 86 the other day) so the sales are plentiful, people are cleaning out their stuff and heading to the donation centers, and oh yes, I went to my first flea market (who knew there is one way out in the country the first Sunday of each month? I sure didn't). After my last post in which I marveled at the recent inflated thrift store prices I have found I was relieved to enter back into the realm of reality.

If I had one Pyrex superpower I would say it is finding lids. Here's proof…I have five, yes five, extra 502 lids, most of which are the older version. One I even got for free. That was a good day. I actually ended up finding bottoms for the two 470 lids a few days later. I amassed these lids over two weeks. I have taken to calling myself the Lid Whisperer.

I'd had a drought at the thrifts and sales until last Saturday. First up was an estate sale where I picked up the Spring Blossom, Butterprint, and Daisy. It's not the best picture but clearly I was excited. Then, that afternoon we stopped into a Goodwill en route to my in-laws' house. Finding this Butterfly Gold 501 for $1 was pretty exciting, given how much Goodwill has been charging these days in my neck of the woods.

How about some embroidered tea towels for $1 each? Or the old school sifter (circa 1950s I think) for $3? Then there's the lime 221 and 22, for $7 each. Steep, but they jumped in my cart and came home with me. I was also thrilled to find this Golden Pine space saver, it's the first one I have ever seen. The leaf is still in good shape, especially on the lid.

Feeling lucky yesterday little miss and I hit the thrifts while my husband stayed home to knock out some projects. I'm not a huge fan of Autumn Harvest but he likes it so I brought them home. Yes, that's another lid, the free one I got from random empty-lot-turned-swap-meet; I asked how much, the proprietor asked what it was, I told him a Pyrex lid, he said take it. The pixies were a fun find as well. The lamp, well, I have a weakness for lamps, I got it at a yard sale that morning. But the apron, that was my favorite of this bunch. It was a whole $2.

And here's what I found at the flea market today. The little shakers are actually mini Ball mason jars and were used by salesmen back in the day to store product samples. The cutlery is a Girl Scout camping kit my daughter got for free from a very nice vendor who found out she is a Girl Scout when talking with her.  

Now, I still left a lot of Pyrex behind at the thrifts. Some was DWD, some too scratched, chipped, or abused. Some were patterns I don't collect and really don't need to haul into my house, so I thought I'd leave them for someone who really wants them. I feel like I've grown up as I used to just grab anything and now I have definitely exercised some restraint. I guess that is progress. 

Jacquelyn

Pink Pyrex in Action

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time.

I just wanted to pop in real quick and prove that yes, we Pyrex fanatics do use our collections!

My husband had to have a tooth pulled the other day and is still not able to eat chewy/hard foods, so what to make for dinner? How about some creamy mac and cheese baked in my pink Pyrex lasagna pan?

Usually I use an enamelware pan for mac and cheese but it was already being used. I really hate to use a plain steel cake pan for it too, because of the metallic aftertaste. So, the best alternative was to put some of my vintage Pyrex to use! 

This pan is the perfect size for a nice large batch (he is eating it for lunch too the next couple of days ;). 

Also, if you look closely, you can see my Pyrex oil and vinegar cruets. I use those almost everyday. They sit perfectly on a spare 502 fridgie lid; like a tray.

I don't know about you guys, but I always breathe a sigh of relief when my precious Pyrex is back in the cupboard safe and sound after a jaunt out and about in my kitchen! 

My first eBay purchase

Hello PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time.

I must really be into this Pyrex thing, because I just did something I swore I would never do: buy Pyrex on eBay! I even said it in this very space- "I prefer the thrill of the hunt, and I would never buy Pyrex online!"



Ouch. It hurts when words come back to bite you.




But in my defense, it was pink, and it was a good deal. Did I mention it was pink?

$9.99 plus shipping. 

And I have to say that the seller did a phenomenal job with the packing. I was really worried, seeing some of the eBay horror stories, about the condition it might arrive in. But I think I got my money's worth in bubble wrap alone (I will be re-using it; that stuff is expensive!), not to mention a beautiful pink 503.

So what brought about the change of heart?

Well, seeing some of the alternative sets some of you guys have put together inspired me. I had this idea to make an alternative set of 503s, and just needed the pink one to finish it:

I do love these colors together. 

And it proves that Primary (the yellow 503) can coexist with my pink, turquoise and black. 

See, it's all about rationalization!

Pink and Turquoise? How did that happen?

So with all the good luck I had with thrift store Pyrex last week, I needed to re-arrange my cabinet display. It has become obvious that I seem to be accumulating a lot of pink and turquoise Pyrex with a bit of black. And I gotta say, I love this color combination.

Who would've thought it? When I started collecting Pyrex, I started with the Primary set of bowls and am still working on the fridgie set. I always thought that would be 'my thing', the original set and the bright colors. Because normally, I'm not a pastel pink and turquoise kinda girl. But then I inherited a couple Butterprint Cinderella bowls and started working on that set.

I had the Starburst promo from way back (even before I became afflicted with this Pyrexia) so thank goodness I can check that off my list without even thinking. And no, I'm not trading it or selling it now. :)

And things kind of happened and I found a bunch of pink Pyrex. No one in their right mind is going to leave that on the shelf, right? Mix in a few black pieces, which I love (like my black fridgie and the Rooster black promo piece) and, well, I've got a theme happening here I think.

I did a little re-arranging in my glass-front cabinets (last time was back in October):

The late afternoon sunlight was hitting the Butterprint fridgies just right and really looked cool, so I thought I'd snap a picture to share with you.

If you had told me a year ago that I would now be trying to collect pink, black and turquoise I would have thought you were crazy. But that is how it goes, and now at least I have a bit of direction to my collection obsession! Anyone else ever have their Pyrex collecting go in a completely different direction than you thought?

Flamingo Pink and Butterprint, all in one thrift store!

Hi PC3, SusieQT here from Practice in Time!

Today is a beautiful day here in the Northeast, and after dropping off my daughter at preschool this afternoon, it seemed a shame to head right home. So I thought I'd do a little thrifting- I was hoping to cash in on some after-Christmas clearances at my favorite store close to home.

Well, I had some good luck there with holiday stuff last week, but I guess by this week it was all gone or all packed up for next year. I poked around the nicknacks a bit and then headed back to the housewares. The shelves were pretty crowded but I spotted some pink under it all. A flamingo lasagna pan!

I was pretty excited about this because 1) I collect pink Pyrex (who doesn't?), 2) I have never found a colored pan this size, and 3) I use my clear Pyrex lasagna pans all the time. Woohoo!

So, the trip was already a success.

Then I headed back to the section where they keep the nicer antiques- and don't you hate when a thrift store has a separate section for "antiques"? I have seen some Pyrex there before and it was all overpriced and crappy. Not good.

But today was a good day- three Butterprint fridgies! Two of the large 503s (only one with lid) and one 502 with lid. I scooped them all up and headed to the register. (Even though I already had a 503 at home- these are absolutely mint, and my other one is not.) Once I got them home and washed, they are beautiful- now I only need one more 501 to complete the set.

I also found a state glass for 50 cents. It was a great day- so glad I went! And the total for all was $22.00- not too bad for these pieces I think.

Tickled Pink, Again

Like most days, especially in the winter, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, surrounded by yumminess and of course, Pyrex! Today, I prepped for a little holiday soiree I'm having this weekend.

Chocolate truffle ganache, jello (for fun shaped table decor), and sugared cranberries all made the cut for Pyrex use: 

Just as I was about to start baking the cookies, I realized I didn't have enough brown sugar. I ran over to the store -- and decided to hit Salvation Army along the way. I am super fortunate to live within a few miles of at least four different thrift stores. Most are along the way to somewhere in my town -- and most have a housewares department that only takes a few minutes to scan. 

Today, right as I neared the end of my 'scan', I found this for a whopping $3: 

It has a small chip on the pink part of the dish, right on the handle, but for $3, it was still worth it for the perfect lid alone!  

I was just at this Salvation Army the other day, and didn't find a thing. But thanks to my poor planning on the brown sugar front, I now have something else to match the Pink Daisy dish I had been contemplating giving away. 

Of course I put the Pyrex to use as soon as those cookies were done. 

Hope your kitchen mishaps lead you to Pyrex prospects as well!

Brenda 

They Were Really Heavy...

A few weekends back I visited my home town for some shopping. Originally it was just supposed to be at Ikea, but last minute we decided to hit up all my old favorite thrift shops. I'm beyond glad that I did!

I found the above set of Pyrex dishes, loads of them actually. There were piles of them, I only picked up 24. I'm not 100% sure I needed them, but I'm glad they came home with me

I also found all the pieces in the second photo, two new gravy boats, some casseroles and a little fridgie!

you can read more about this thrift trip on my blog, and you see a bunch of my pyrex collection here!.

New Kitchen Cabinet Display

One of the things I love best about collecting kitchen items is displaying them in my glass-fronted cabinets. When we bought this house, having cabinets like these was on my wish list. (It definitely wouldn't have been a deal-breaker for sure, but it helped when we looked at this house!)

So it was a perfect place to display some of my collections. For a while I collected printed glassware (another post on that coming soon), and I inherited some really neat red and yellow pottery, which went with my kitchen's yellow, green and red color scheme. Those made a nice display for a while. But lately I've been collecting Pyrex, FireKing and jadeite, and decided to re-organize my displays to better reflect that.

That meant moving things around and re-thinking what I reallly wanted to look at for a while. It took me the better part of a rainy afternoon last week to finally settle on a layout, so to document that, I thought I'd show you all.

Here's the before:

Not too bad, really, but not as organized as I would like. Some of these things have been in the same spot for ten years! Also the clear glassware at the top right kind of disappears. (It's really neat close-up, with etched stars, but would be better put away somewhere else.) You can see the printed glassware all jumbled in the lower right. I figured, since you can't really make it all out, maybe it's best if I put most of it away and only get out only one set at a time.

Here's the finished display, and close ups to follow:

I tried to organize it by color a little bit, with the red and yellow pottery near the yellow and green Fiesta. Then the jadeite and Peach Blossom FireKing (which is a match made in heaven, I think), then the Pyrex on the right.

The Fiestaware is not old (mostly), and our regular everyday dishes, so they have to be easily accessible.

This is probably my favorite one, with the FireKing and jadeite. The printed glasses in the carrier are the only ones to make the cut right now. You can see some of the Pyrex holiday mugs sneaking into the picture there- guess they wanted a bit of face time in the FireKing cabinet, LOL!

The Pyrex cabinet. I am trying really hard to limit myself to just the primary colors set  (I'm using the yellow 404 at the moment, so it's not pictured) and turquoise Butterprint, plus pink and promotional designs. The lone FireKing wheat casserole in the lower right belonged to my dad, so it still gets a place of honor.

Right now, I'm pretty happy with it and it is a nice change of scenery!

The Black Fridgie

Look what I found!

Yes, it is a black fridgie.

So far, here's what I've been able to learn about it. First, it is the same size and shape of any other 503 (large) refrigerator dish. Second, the clear glass lid is not original. As far as I've been able to gather, there are no other all-black pyrex pieces except some mugs; this is the only size and shape all-black dish ever made.

I believe this was originally part of a Rodney Kent Starline entertaining set, which you can see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotforpyrex/7860539208/  and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotforpyrex/7860704990/

(Rodney Kent made mostly hammered aluminum ware that sometimes had Pyrex-made inserts. Other than that, I don't know much about them. Someone posted the other day about a turquoise Starline set, which would be approximately the same era.)

I'd love to find the right lid and cradle, but for now I thought it would look great with my pink fridgie I got a while back. I think this is the beginning of a great alternative set in one of my all time fave color combos- now to find the 2 baby ones in pink!

Anyone ever seen one of these before or have more info?

Rummage Sale Pyrex!

For me, Christmas comes twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall, our local church has a huge rummage sale. I always find tons of goodies there, and the prices are great. Today was no exception!

I found so much stuff, I'm blogging about it here (the Pyrex of course) and my home blog, Practice in Time- check that out for the rest of the haul!

I was one of the first people there- actually had to wait in line behind about 15 others until they opened the door. I headed right for the linens and housewares, and spotted some Pyrex right off the bat:

A pink gooseberry 472 casserole- $2. It didn't have a lid, but that's no big deal; I can use the one from my 473. It was really dirty and grimy, but is happily soaking in the sink right now, and should come clean with some BKF.

Holiday Corningware/Pyrex mugs. I had no idea these existed until somebody here posted about them the other day. And then I found these today- $3 for 4. 

I don't know if I really need to keep them- too much holiday stuff already- anyone interested in a trade for Butterprint or primary fridgies?

I also passed up a whole set of brown floral restaurant dishes. At $15, the price wasn't bad, but that is just too much of a good thing, and a pattern I don't collect. I'm hoping my Pyrexia doesn't overcome me and I have to go back for them tomorrow on half-price day!