Just a quick note that we’re starting up a section on Pyrex Love that will talk about some of the other glassware patterns that sometimes get confused as Pyrex. In our thrift shop runs, we often come across nice non-Pyrex items and pick them up. Hopefully, we’ll continue to expand this section as an ongoing project with the help of folks who have pics of their non-Pyrex items.

Article: This is NOT Pyrex

We were hoping someone might be able to shed some further light on this older piece of glass we found that is marked “Fry Oven Glass.” We do know that the Fry Glassware Company got a license to make Pyrex in the 20s, which is why we’ve included it here. Our piece is a Fry Oven Glass 1 quart casserole without the lid (you can see the markings clearer on the ref page). If you’re an expert on Fry Glass and know more about it, please let us know… this is the first piece we’ve come across in a thrift shop.

Happy Mother’s Day! Just a quick picture update on our current Rainbow Stripes Mixing Bowl collection which continues to expand slowly. We found the pink stripes 401 1.5 pint bowl today at the flea market. The only color we are missing now is yellow - although we still are a ways from collecting every size in pink, blue and brown too!

We recently got a number of great glassware items that all fit this one theme - Pyrex that you pour things out of. Front and center is what looks like a pitcher with red dots on it (sorry, the angle makes the dots look a bit wonky). We didn’t think this was Pyrex, but had to pick it up because we liked it so much. Apparently, it is a Cruet that is part of a Fire King “Range Set”… these range sets usually had a grease pot and salt and pepper shakers. But this one had the cruet instead. Unfortunately the stopper for the cruet was missing, but it’s still a really nice item.

On the right is another example of laboratory glass that we were pretty happy to pick up online. This Butterfly Gold patterned Pyrex Erlenmeyer Flask is part of a set of labware items that had the pattern in Blue which is quite unusual. On the left is a Pyrex Spring Blossom Salt Shaker. This usually had a green pointy top that inserted right into the mouth of the shaker - but unfortunately the top for this one was also missing.

We actually picked up this great Black Tulip Promotional casserole online. One of the main reasons we got it is because it actually came with the promotional wire casserole caddy - and since we have a number of casseroles in this size, we figured the caddy would be extra useful. It features stylized tulip shapes and small star pinwheels on an opal white standard 043 casserole that is 1.5 quarts. Supposedly, it was made for the holidays in 1957.

These goldleaf on brown Federal Eagle Mugs that we found at a thrift shop were a bit of a mystery. In shape and size they are identical to the standard 1410 diagonal D handle Pyrex mugs. At first we thought they belonged to the “Hearth” group - specifically the Federal Eagle pattern. However, those mugs are very different in shape. Recently, we saw an auction for these mugs that actually included a carafe or beverage server, so we believe that would explain where they came from. There are actually a number of Pyrex “Beverage Server Sets” that were sold that included 4-6 Diagonal D handle 1410 mugs and a glass carafe - we’ve only recently made the connection. Hopefully, we’ll get to list more of these sets soon.

Funny, we ended up finding several more items that go along with an earlier post. The are two Rainbow Stripes bowls, a blue and brown one. These are the large #403 2.5 quart size and were in great shape. We know the brown ones are probably the least popular color of stripes, but since we have the smaller 402 one, we decided to pick it up anyway. The blue stripes bowl was actually the same price at $5.

We also found this red Friendship pattern Bake-Serve-Store casserole with a really nice lid. This is the middle size of that set, #472 and 1.5 pint. That’s one step closer to getting a full set of Friendship items… still a long ways to go though!

We’ve actually had other square Pyrex Hostess pieces for quite awhile now - but they’ve been the yellow ones. We recently picked up these two covered Pyrex Red Hostess casseroles. The first is a 2.5 quart covered casserole with #525-Bon the bottom. The second smaller one is a 1.5 quart covered casserole with #515-B on the bottom. The lids have the equivalent numbers but with a “-C”.

For a long time, we’ve struggled with classifying just how the different casseroles were sold - the books on Pyrex aren’t exactly definitive (at least one seems to mistakenly list the turquoise square chip/dip as hostess casseroles - although later we realized there is a covered version of this as well). I think we’re ready to at last to try and take a stab at shedding some light on these great dishes.

So far, we have seen three types of boxed sets of these square dishes sold - in two basic colors, red and yellow (others may exist, but these are the most common). These sets are called “Hostess Oven and Table”, “Hostess Casserole and Table” and “Hostess Covered Casserole”.

The “Hostess Oven And Table” set contained a 2.5 quart large #525 bowl and 4 smaller 12 oz. ramekins or bowls. There was NO LID in this particular set.

The “Hostess Casserole And Table” set contained a 1.5 quart large covered #515 bowl and 4 smaller 7oz. ramekins or bowls. This one DID contain a lid.

So, you might ask, where did we get the lid for the larger #525 bowl then? The thing is that they also sold these #525 bowls separately WITH LID. These boxes were labeled “Hostess Covered Casserole”.

Hopefully this will clear things up a bit. Again, this isn’t definitive in any way - there may be other configurations of these sets. Please write in if you have more correct info that can be verified by original boxes or pictures. There is also reportedly a “larger” covered bowl than the 2.5 quart, but we haven’t seen that one yet in person.

Some nice finds from the local flea market last weekend: A 401 mixing bluebell mixing bowl, a 402 Rainbow Stripes mixing bowl in taupe stripes, and a 1.5 qt Friendship casserole.

We got lucky with the bluebell because we had never seen such dark blue milk glass in person before and almost passed it up as a regular ceramic bowl. It was on a vendor’s $2 table and we thought it was too good to be true until we flipped it over and saw the PYREX logo. It’s such a nice shade of blue, now we’re on the hunt for the others in the set. The 402 bowl is our first Rainbow Stripes - brown/taupe is probably the least popular among the Rainbow stripes (the other colors are light blue, pink, and yellow) but we like how it looked. Besides, we couldn’t pass it up at $5.

Last but not least, we now have our first Friendship casserole. Friendship is one of the most popular patterns and one of our favorites. The orange paint was shiny and minty, not a scratch in sight - the lid is in pretty good condition as well. The bird/floral pattern on the lid is way cute!

We are very much behind still on getting all the newest Pyrex items catalogued or even mentioned. We have a big backlog of finds still waiting to make their debut on the site. Here are a few Pyrex and non-Pyrex from thrift store forays awhile back.

This set is punctuated by a really nice blue mug found at an antique mall… without any marks we merely picked this up because we liked it. However, the shape of the mug (definitely not a mug from Pyrex) led us to believe it was Hazel-Atlas and a quick check on Ebay showed the same.

Next up were two adorable small teacups from Pyrex. These are marked as Tableware on the bottom and are the small 701 8 oz. size. We added them to our collection because we didn’t have this size yet (the cups are very squat, much different than other tableware we have), and because of the pattern on the cup which is a bit different than the usual ones. If anyone knows the official (or semi-official) name for the pattern, please let us know. It consists of a band of small brown flowers surrounded on all four sides by flourishes. We’ll add this to the pattern database after we find out the name.

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Here’s a brown themed selection of Pyrex finds this time around. We have been on the lookout for items with the Terra pattern for awhile. We already had a 401 1 1/2 pint smaller bowl, but came across this large four quart #404 at a thrift store the other day for 3 bucks. These Terra items are very interesting because the surface is matte and it appears as if the orange/brown lines are “scratched” into the surface - that is the lines appear to be inset into the surface as oppposed to on top of the surface.

We also found an incomplete piece of Flameware, 1 1/2 quart double boiler with the id mark of #6283. This is missing both the lid and the inner boiler, but we’ve still found actual use for it in making soups and broth. It’s a rather deep glass pot without the inner boiler. It has the standard detachable glass handle that looks at first like it would fall off. We tend to see a lot of flameware being sold at estate sales and garage sales, but it’s often incomplete like this… many times the handles are gone - this is especially true of the glass skillets with the interchangable metal handles. Without the handles, these look almost like small mixing bowls or refrigerator dishes - and the people selling them often sell them as such.

The third find is a nice brown glass Fire King mug. I’m not clear on which set this is from, and they don’t seem to be in much demand, but I liked it because it was sturdy. It’s marked on the bottom as Anchor Hocking / Fire King. I think this might have been made in the early 70s.