tuna fish dish

This somewhat faded-looking dish is known as the tuna fish dish. That's because back in the 1960s, my Mom would serve her tuna salad in it...frequently.

The dish is made from melamine (trade name was “melmac”), a super hard plasticware that had its heyday of popularity in the 1950s and 60s. Its claim to fame was indestructibility… this material is tough stuff. Although the pieces appeared attractive when new (if you enjoy 1950s colors), they don’t age well (even though they won’t break!). Two downsides to melmac: it scratches easily from utensils and can get a scuffed look, and it can discolor from holding certain foods or beverages, like coffee. Despite those negatives, I’ve come across numerous melmac dishes in good condition.

By the time I was in college, this dish had fallen out of favor in my parents’ household. I found it had been relegated to the basement, where my Dad used it as a container to mix spackle. I cleaned it up and claimed it some years ago, and it now has “upstairs bowl” status in Pennsylvania.

There are various brands of melmac, and this bowl is stamped “Boontonware” underneath. It was manufactured in Boonton, NJ, not far from where I grew up.

collectible thoughts

"I don't get it," my younger brother said, when I asked him to check out my blog at a recent get-together. "No offense, " but I'm not sure anyone would want to read about this Pyrex stuff," he continued, clicking through my entries quickly.

"No offense taken," I said, although I'm not sure that was true. "I guess it's hard for a nonPyrex enthusiast to relate to my kitchen collectibles."

So what's the appeal in all this old and inexpensive "stuff?" Well, I like the way the dishes look or I wouldn't have acquired them. I also enjoy spending time at Saturday morning yard sales and drafty thrift shops, and I actually use what I get.

Mostly, there's the nostalgia factor, which is a very strong appeal, though harder to describe. It's a spooky feeling, for sure, to have an old bowl of my mother's bring back a long-ago moment that I hadn't thought of in years. Definitely spooky... but in a good, comfortable way.

For me, the Pyrex... the dishes from my family, all have a story. And the items from yard sales and thrift shops also have their stories... I just don't know them, but that's ok.

ten cent find!

What can you buy with a dime? For me, it was this 1 1/2 quart refrigerator dish in the "Snowflake Blue" pattern.

Several years ago, I was checking out a large yard sale in an older neighborhood. Other neighbors had also started impromptu sales on their lawns, as the one big advertised sale was generating much interest and traffic.

One of these offspring yard sales certainly looked quite meager: the homeowner had put a sheet on his lawn on which he had placed only a handful of items.
The blue Snowflake dish appeared pristine with its strong color and lack of scratches. "Ten cents," he said when I picked it up, and a sale was made.

This piece dates from the 1960s, and I've seen the pattern also referred to as "Garland." Great for reheating dinner for two.

the colonial category

Although brown Pyrex isn’t my choice color and patriotic eagles aren’t my decorating style, I'm actually liking these two pieces more than when first acquired. The pattern, introduced in the early 1960s, is aptly called “Early American.” An interest in American colonial symbols/themes for decorating became trendy in the
1960s, continuing into the 70s.

A Memory Lane flashback:
My parents' family room in the mid1960s featured a sofa with rust-colored cushions displaying a pattern of eagles, muskets, and little "scrolls," which I think were supposed to represent the Declaration of Independence. Tacky looking, maybe, but it was comfortable for TV viewing!

When I got married in the late 70s, the pseudo-colonial look was still popular, further sparked by the 1976 bicentennial. Many of my young-married contemporaries seemed to be buying dark, heavy pine furniture and oval braided rugs.

Back to my "Early American" Pyrex. The oval flat divided dish is very useful for heating leftovers and the price was right at New Life Thrift in Glenside, PA…about 2 dollars a couple of years ago. The 1 1/2 quart oval casserole was an e-bay purchase by my husband. He had broken the lid for a similar-size casserole when pulling it out of the cabinet, and he bought this one to get me a "replacement" lid. At the time, it was actually less expensive to purchase the complete casserole rather than the lid alone.

a primary piece

In the early 1950s, the Pyrex primary colored mixing bowls appeared. With their appealing bright colors, they became a kitchen classic. My mother had a full set of these bowls, which she used intermittently. She kept them stored in a cabinet over the oven range hood, and I remember her climbing up on a step stool (she was short) and carefully taking down the one she needed. They nested in each other in graduated sizes: the smallest 0.5 qt blue, the 1.25 qt red, the 2.5 qt (very desirable!) green, and then the "mother of primary bowls" size-wise, the 4 qt yellow one. That particular set, which is intact, has a happy home with my sister in New York.

This yellow Pyrex mixing bowl came to me via another path--my mother-in-law gave it to me back in the late 1970s because, I recall, it was something she no longer wanted. Where did she get the bowl, and why did she only have one? (I never saw any others in her home.) This mixing bowl's solo history is an unknown, and I didn't think to ask while she was alive.

I photographed this bowl in its natural habitat for the past 20 something years, my kitchen cabinet near the oven. I like to use it as a serving piece as well as a mixing bowl--- the sunny color gives it a casual picnicky look.

refrigerator dish reflections

According to the “literature,” Pyrex refrigerator dishes came onto the kitchen scene in the late 1940s and, like other Pyrex, can be used for refrigerator, oven, and freezer. Pictured is a small one in the “butterprint” pattern that I found at a yard sale. These came in various sizes, and this particular one would be the smallest in a set. Supposedly, earlier refrigerator dishes had lids with finer, thinner glass ribs, so the one pictured is not a real early one according to that "lid criteria"...I would guess that it dates to the 1960s.

Originally intended for storage of leftovers, I think that once Tupperware and other plasticware with more airtight seals came to market, these started to go the way of the dinosaur. A couple of reasons: they just don’t keep food for very long because the glass lid does not seal, but simply sits on top. Another reason: you can’t readily see what leftovers you have. I realized this “phenomenon” the couple of times I stored a small bit of leftovers in this particular dish--it just kept getting pushed further and further back into the dark corners of my refrigerator because I couldn’t easily see the contents.

OK, negatives aside, I do like my little refrigerator dish for nostalgia and “cuteness” factors alone and would definitely purchase others at the right price. I also think it would be a great little serving piece on the table for dip, salsa, etc.

canisters with caché

These canisters in the "spice of life" pattern resonate 1960s, and many items of Pyrex and Corningware had this popular motif. I've found a variety of uses for them: as you can see, mine currently contain plastic cutlery, toothpicks...even can be used as a dinosaur holder! Purchased in 2007 at the New Life Thrift Shop in Glenside, PA, they ranged in price from 1 to 2 dollars a piece. The lid on the tallest canister has yellowed a bit with age/use.

There actually used to be a fourth canister that did not survive to see 2008.
Note to self: while Pyrex is quite sturdy in many ways, let a piece slip from your grasp onto the hard floor, and there's a high probability it will break. My daughter dropped it while attempting to store rice (excellent idea for use, by the way!) and then had a nasty mess of rice and glass to sweep up.

A little Pyrex mystery...
I'm thinking that the smallest canister pictured (holding the toothpicks) may be part of a different set. While the motif on the lid matches the other two, the colors are slightly different. No red pepper, for example, on that canister's lid...it's more of a brown color and though it's hard to tell from the photo, the other spice-colors do not quite match the larger container lids.

heirloom to hand down

This 1 1/2 quart casserole dates from the 1950s and is the "Snowflake" pattern.

I had met my husband’s Aunt June, the original owner of the piece, only once. Back in 1976, newly engaged, my husband (then fiance!) and I visited her at a hospital in NYC. Very frail, I remember that she spoke with me for a few minutes and then had to rest. Just in her 50s, she died of cancer later in that winter.

Some months afterward, her possessions were disbursed. My husband received her stereo “record-player” and some books. Several household items, including the Snowflake casserole, came to me.

Even meeting Aunt June for that single time, I got an immediate impression of her feisty personality--independent and inquisitive. And though this turquoise casserole is faded (mistakenly put it in the dishwasher in my early Pyrex ignorance), it is one of my favorites.

my first Pyrex

In late December 1976, in a modest off-campus apartment by Rutgers College, I received my first Pyrex.

The setting was a small bridal shower given by some college friends before my January wedding. I remember swiftly tearing away the paper, tossing the ribbon aside, and opening the box… full of anticipation…and then lifting out the set of 3 mixing bowls. (They were the Homestead pattern.) At the time, I wasn’t impressed. “Oh, gee, thanks...what nice bowls,” I vaguely remember saying to the giver.

Little did I anticipate how much use these mixing bowls would get as they became the starting point of so many successful (and some not so successful) recipes.
Unfortunately, I dropped the littlest bowl of the group in the early 80s, and replaced it with the blue one, which is a pattern called Colonial Mist.

"fresh as a daisy"

This Pyrex lid is part of the "daisy" series of Pyrex, which I believe dates from the late 1950s/early 1960s. I found the lonesome lid in the New Life Thrift Shop in Glenside, PA. The corresponding "bottoms" in this series are in different solid shades of yellow. It's handy to have an extra lid to 'mix and match' with some of the 1-quart casseroles that I already have.

This daisy design also comes on white milkglass as well as the clear glass pictured.

ornate casserole

In Summer of 2007, I hit the open road to go to the Ohio stretch of the Rt. 127 highway garage sale. We had done part of the southern stretch (Tennessee & Kentucky) in a previous year, and at that time I spotted huge quantities of Pyrex. Not so much in Ohio, it seemed.

However, at the end of my last day there, before heading back to PA, I found this piece for $5. According to the Barbara Mauzy reference, this is a piece of decorative, engraved Pyrex ovenware, which was probably manufactured before 1940. The holder is quite ornate, and the handles are actually very sharp to the touch! It's hard to discern in my photo, but the Pyrex lid is engraved with a repeating floral pattern.