Spring Blossom Mystery
We were hoping that someone might be able to comment on this little mystery we discovered the other day. Because our Pyrex is increasing exponentially, there are times when we accidentally pick up more than one of the same item without even knowing it! In this case, we had thought we needed this Spring Blossom Green 503 1.5 quart refrigerator dish, but in fact we had one already! What we usually do in that case is try to sell our extra one.
But when we lined up the two in order to try decide which one to keep, we got a little surprise - the pattern on the two identical dishes are slightly different!
As you know, Spring Blossom has another distinct “pattern”. However, neither of the patterns on our two refrigerator dishes look like that one. These two patterns just appear to be very slight variations of each other. One pattern (the one on top) appears to be printed “larger” than the other. When will the Spring Blossom pattern variation madness end?!
The pattern is the same on both sides of each refrigerator dish. If you have any information about why they are different, or if you’d just like to chime in on which one you have, please leave a comment.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Interesting!!! I have the whole Spring Blossom collection but I don’t have any duplicates to compare… I wish I knew the answer…
June 11th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I don’t know if this will help at all, I don’t own any of this pattern (my own Pyrex collecting has just begun!), but I was looking at a bowl by this pattern on a website, and decided to do some research, and found this site that discusses some of the differences in both the two Pyrex patterns, and the Corelle pattern. Maybe it will give you a better idea, or maybe you could contact the person who has the website and ask them if they have more information.
Anyway, I hope that helps at all! I really love this pattern, and your two look like they’re in awesome condition. Best of luck!
June 11th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
eleanor - oh yes, we have pored through that site on many occasions! However, the discrepancy on the refrigerator dishes we show above doesn’t seem to be an issue between those two patterns (which we talk about and research on our site as well - see the entry on Crazy Daisy). Our mystery just seems to be the identical pattern but different sized and a bit re-ordered. Neither have the same hallmarks as the other alternate pattern (i.e. the 3 leaf cluster).
June 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Are the stamps on the bottom of these dishes exactly the same or are there any differences that might point to which design is newer than the other?
I don’t have a solid answer, but this is definitely a pattern that evolved over time having probably more than one update. The most obvious update that collectors notice was from the pattern being small with the 3-leaf cluster to a larger design with the fan-shaped flower. Perhaps the overall evolution of the pattern could be summed up by saying it started off small and delicate and finished up big and bold. But it’s just an idea! It just as easily could have been that they decided it was too big and scaled it back. It could be either way.
As for WHY designs get changed, I would hazard a guess that usually changes are made for technical and economic reasons, and hardly ever because the company thinks it will please the consumer.
For example, a small pattern may be more time-consuming to produce because it needs to be done carefully, and every flaw will show. So they make the pattern bigger with broader strokes to speed production and reduce the number of rejected pieces. Conversely a large pattern might be scaled back because they have realized you can use less ‘paint’ in the printing process.
Sorry! I’ve said a lot for someone who hasn’t got an answer! Hope you find it out!
June 11th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
cindy - the backstamps are identical. That is a very interesting idea that there may have actually been more than two “phases” of spring blossom. I also had the idea that perhaps on the refrigerator dishes the pattern never had the “3 leaf cluster”… I haven’t seen an original box with the refrigerator boxes that has the 3leaf cluster pattern so can’t be sure. So in that case, maybe the change of 3 leaf cluster to larger design w/ fan shaped cluster occurred on bowls, while the change of just small pattern to large pattern occurred on refrigerator dishes. This is all just wild guessing…
I did do a quick survey on Ebay completed auctions on spring blossom refrig boxes… I found at least 5 with the “large” pattern (the one on the top in the picture above) and only 1 with the “small pattern”. Hm… maybe I should hold on to that small pattern one for now instead of selling it until we find out more!
June 11th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
To add to the confusion, check out the new pic posted by “runjackierun” on the Pyrexlove pool on Flickr today. The fridge dish in the middle of the picture has another completely different pattern!
June 11th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
bill - oh yeah, we saw that. Actually, it is a bit confusing, because I think the piece in question is a 502 1.5 pint right? So you can’t compare the pattern to ours, because the piece we are talking about above is the largest size 503 1.5 quart. The patterns do differ between the sizes. HOWEVER, comparing the TWO 502s that she has, those ARE different. (It is sort difficult to tell all the sizes she is showing in the pic - i’m assuming the middle column is a 501 and a 502, and the right column is a 501, 502 and 503, right? if that is correct then, yes comparing her 2 502s, they are different, but her 503 is the same as ours.)
ugh, my head is spinning!
June 12th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Oh, I didn’t realize that your picture was of the biggest ones in the set. I thought I had the whole set, but the largest one in my set has handles on the sides of it, and yours doesn’t appear to. Are there different versions of that as well?
June 12th, 2007 at 7:36 am
bill - LOL! For some reason, in the photo above you can’t see the handles! I’m trying to figure out how I took that pic so that you can’t see them. They both do have handles… so no wonder everyone thought it was the 502! I should have taken the pic with the handles visible, maybe taken it diagonally. I had a similar problem with trying to figure out which dishes were in runjackierun’s pics…
June 12th, 2007 at 7:41 am
LOL Thank you for clarifying! I was afraid I was going to have to start searching for another piece of this collection when I thought I had everything LOL I am waaay to involved in Pyrex. But I just love it!
June 14th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I have a clear casserole dish tear drop pattern with lid marked Pyrex Ovenware 35 on the dish and 31 on the lid which has circles on it. It is probably a 2 qt. and has no handles. I can’t remember where I got it. I have checked all the websites and e=bay which lists one with the dear drop pattern as a serving bowl with no lid Anyone have info. thanks nancy
June 20th, 2007 at 11:59 am
nancy - i think that is an old measuring bowl, the question has come up previously. By the way, if possible, please use the contact form on the about page for unrelated questions… we’d like to keep each post discussion on topic, thanks!
June 21st, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Sorry, I can’t find that form. My piece is definately not a measuring bowl.
thanks
June 21st, 2007 at 6:10 pm
It’s on the about page here. Hm.. if it’s not a measuring bowl, then we don’t know what it is. A piece close to your description was listed as a measuring bowl in a book we have.