Rodney Kent and Glass: Pyrex, Fire King, Federal, et al

Recently I have begun to research the glassware that has been used in Rodney Kent. They purchased from several companies. There are more collectors of the glassware than there are of Rodney Kent aluminum, so I have tried to use the glassware to figure out and approximate time for manufacture of Rodney Kent. So here is my first dilemma.

In a previous blog, I posted a page from a wholesaler's catalog. It had a drawing of a cruet set. Shortly after that the metal holder went up on eBay. Alas, the glassware was not with it. the advertisement had the specifications and a clear drawing of the glass cruet. So I scoured various venues for cruet servers. With my  possibilities reviewed I settled on two with the exact same profiles, but they are both 5 3/8" tall and the wholesale ad say 6 3/4" None of the cruet jars  that were this shape were that height. But this is my find.

 

So now I am wondering if Anchor Hocking or Pyrex, but especially Pyrex made cruet jars with this exact handle shape and body profile. What I have here is Hazel Atlas on the right and Hocking?? Glass on the left. Shape is correct. Height is not what the ad says. I would love some input.

I have got my hands on many collectors books...... Depression Glass, Fire King, Kitchen glass of the 30's and 40's, and so on. I have seen nothing that helps me in this category. Now I am waiting for a Fostoria glass book. So we will see.

On the bright side, the butter dish has an identifiable maker.

 

 

This glass butter holder is produced by Federal Glass. Federal makes a full butter dish, which you can occasionally find online and this is used as a lid. It is not to be confused this the  "Criss Cross" pattern sold by Hazel Atlas. Below is the full federal glass butter dish.

 

Notice the three triple rib bars

 

 

and here is the Hazel Atlas butter dish.

 

So for at least one glass item, the mystery is solved. But one more look at a bowl that is identifiable but that I have never seen in books. The Pyrex bowl 592 with the concentric circle bottom. At first glance you might think that it is a Fire King "Manhattan" bowl or the later "Park Avenue", but is it distinctly marked Pyrex.

 

 

So this is my last entry for the night. Again, you can see this on the wholesale catalog page that I previously posted. I believe that this may be item #417, but I am not sure. Something to think about for tonight.

 



The bidding war I lost

I was browsing through eBay looking at butter dishes when I found a surprise. It didn't say Rodney Kent, but is had all the signs and I knew it. I wasn't the only one. I bid against this person right to the 2 minute mark.... but it's hard to bid when you are working in a retail environment. I lost. A new person sniped me at the last minute and won the prize for $50.50.

I never doubted that this was a true Rodney Kent and not a mismatch because I already own a butter dish with a milk glass base, in it's original box with the original hangtag still attached. The milk glass base is from Fire King. The lid isn't quite as hammered as the rest of the collection. The seller, willy5269 of  Lancaster, Ohio., tells me that he found this at an estate sale. Look him up on eBay.

 

 This is my find from earlier the summer of 2013. The butter dish was acquired by the seller from the purchase of an old general store. They bought the entire stock and found this. It's still marked with the original price of $2.50 which is consistent with the catalog page that I printed in my last blog.

 

 

This brings me to the topic that I will be writing about. Glass --- Fire King ( Anchor Hocking Glass Co.) is one of many resources that Krischer glass tapped when searching for liners for casseroles or other decorative glass. Pyrex and Fire King, as well as Fostoria and Indiana Glass Co. all produced items the are better documented than Rodney Kent. It is through this type of forensic research that I am able to date production of the Kent pieces. My guess is that both of these butter dishes are late 1950's, but I don't have corroborated proof. I do know a lot from the Pyrex liners and the tab handles that were produced up until a limited time. But more about that the next time.

Rodney Kent --a page from 1955

I found this on eBay a while ago. It is the closest that I have come to getting a list of Rodney Kent. The pictures confirm that the handles and tabs were not confined to the tulip final. And the actual glassware is there to confirm what I have already found. In the upcoming month, I will be dedicating some blogs on Pyrex, Fire King, depression glass, and others. Meantime, check this out.

 

 

 Love the prices! One of my finds is a butter dish from old store stock with the tags and the original box, still marked with the original selling price of $2.50. I just found the Cruet set. I would have never recognized it for Rodney Kent if I hadn't had this page.

Rodney Kent -- is it the real thing?

I guess I will have to leave this up to the readers....
My newest prize for my collection arrived in it's box and all. The box is marked "#480, ice bucket" with the Rodney Kent logo, the shield that says "Creations by Rodney Kent" on the box.  Not surprisingly, it is not the same quality as the one that I received from my uncle. The one that he received as a wedding present in the late 40's. The detail and craftsmanship were exquisite. The handles has the petals slightly curled and the center of the flower was rounded like a half moon.

The ice bucket that I had received weeks before was not like that at all. The pattern was not trimmed as clearly. The flower had less dimension. Definitely less effort towards quality. But I will let you be the judge

The original single flower  handle.

The single flower handle from the ice bucket that I bought on eBay. Notice the excess around the motifs, particularly at the ends of the ribbon where the rivet is.

The Nasco, Italy handle. This company copied many Rodney Kent designs with little twists that made some people believe it was a Rodney Kent design.

The tab handle on a Lazy Susan #471 that I received in it's original box from early to mid 1940's.

Another view of the ice bucket handle, with no excess and good dimension in the design.

Finally, the newest addition to my collection, the Mint condition, never used ice bucket that came in the box with the original tag. Notice that there is some excess but the dimension is improved and except in the corners of the petals, it has been trimmed clean.

 

 

What I think this exercise has shown it that the handles with the clean trim and the well rounded petals were produced no later than 1949 and that the ones with excess were produced after 1944 and before 1963, because that was when  the two digit postal code as seen on the hangtag was used.  The Krischer Metal Products Company evolved in both design and quality. In the thirty years that this pattern was produced, it went through many iterations.