Vintage Pyrex baking glass

Many of my estate sale customers are familiar with a picture often posted on facebook of some older ladies dressed in 1950’s attire headed to an estate sale exclaiming that they must be close because they can smell the Pyrex!  Not that Pyrex has a smell but there are almost always Pyrex pieces at the estate sales as this durable glassware has been around now for 105 years!  I remember receiving a set of Pyrex nesting bowls in burnt orange as a wedding gift in 1983!  Most ladies will remember a particular pattern from their mother’s or grandmother’s kitchen that brings back fond memories.

Perhaps you remember the nesting bowls that came out in the 1940’s that include the yellow, green, red and blue mixing bowls.  They are still highly sought after today.  We have actually sold several of these at estate sales this year. 

Corning glass works actually produced the “Pyrex” baking glass line somewhat by accident.  The railroads had commissioned Corning to come up with a glass to use in their lanterns that wouldn’t break when the hot glass was hit with rain or snow.  It just so happened that one of the researcher’s wives was looking for some kind of baking glass that wouldn’t chip and break so easily like the current glass products of the time.  Her husband took one of the glass battery jars they were developing and cut the top off and brought it home.

The rest as they say was history!  She baked a cake and noticed that it browned uniformly, she could tell the doneness by the clear glass, and it cleaned up easily and baked quickly.  Her husband took one of her cakes back to the lab and all the researchers agreed it was amazing and two years later the Pyrex line of clear bakeware was introduced to the market.  Good Housekeeping Magazine and The Ladies Home Journal reported on this amazing new product and it took off like wildfire!

The low expansion cookware has withstood the test of time and you can easily find Pyrex at flea markets, estate sales and antique shops.  They are still pretty reasonable to purchase unless you are looking for a rarer pattern.  It is often easy to recognize what era the glassware is from by the colors and patterns used.

When I bake my mom’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, I use the Pyrex bowl that is white with the turquoise blue colonial people on it and I am instantly transported back in time to the 1960’s when I was little and that pattern was popular.  I would never put vintage colored Pyrex in the dishwasher.  The colored Pyrex after the 1970’s was more suited for the dishwasher but I prefer t wash all mine by hand.  Happy collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 40years and is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist.  You can contact her through the Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com