Breakfast with Rodney Kent

I don't want to disappoint you, if you were expecting a tete a tete, but this is not about the "designer". Rodney Kent is a figment of the imagination of Krischer Giftware and not a very creative one at that. They looked out a window and  saw the intersections of Rodney and Kent Streets in Brooklyn and said.... well that works!

If, however, you have been aching to see  some lovely kitchen utility sets or maybe a cruet or two... well then you will be quite satisfied.

Basic Butter

In the beginning there was the basic butter dish, and it was good. Please don't confuse the original with the poor quality 1980s reproduction of this item from Southern Living Magazine. The glassware maker is Federal Glass Company. The number is 470.

This butter dish below is from the late '50s. The glassware is from Fire King. It is number 418

The same lid and glassware but a fancier holder. I believe this is part of a collection of cassarole holders and coasters with the trim that is similar to the handles on this piece. One day I will do a blog on this collection as a unit. Again the era is late '50s. I was outbid on this piece and I don't know what the number is.

This butter dish I can date to 1955 because I have a page from a catalog dated 1955 show this and many other pieces.

Napkin holders.

This holder must have come as part of a set as I have never seen any number for it.

This also shows on the 1955 tear sheet as an individual #

The individual toast holder  #405

Condiment jars

This is the individual condiment jar. It sits in a tulip flower tray and has the clear plastic spoon that sits in the notch in the lid.

Notice the difference between the condiment holder on the left and the drink coaster on the right. There is a depression in the center meant to hold the glass. Krischer was very exact in the indentations that held glassware. Nothing in the line is loose and sliding around. If the glassware that you have with your item does not fit perfectly, then you have a marriage and not the original glassware.

The Mustard and Ketchup set . Note the cute color coded spoons.

So, lo and behold, it was good and what was created was the Breakfast Utility Set #447,  butter, preserves and a place for the napkins.

And then an incredible selection of combinations......

The  Twin Preserve Set -notice that the tray is scalloped on the end similar to the two most popular pieces in the line #404 and #406 - bread trays with and without handles.

also notice the lids on this set. the hammered texture is quite small compared to the  lids on the jars above, which has the same texture as the tray it sits on.

#474

#472

Lazy Susan Breakfast Utility

and its design brother. Do go back as see the jam jar lids in the catalog page. My sample may be a marriage. You can never be sure with Rodney Kent.

 Cruets

and cruets and preserves

And no breakfast would be complete without a cream and sugar set.

#479

Finally we have to serve drinks.

 I wanted to show you the two pitchers in the collection together. #481 is the smaller pitcher, possibly for breakfast. #453 is more if the ice tea size. It seems every company made glasses. The ones in the photo  are unmarked and I really don't know if they belong to Rodney Kent.

Note the ice blockers. #453 has a very fine bar with tulips stamped on it, while #481 uses the wider gros grain ribbon motif of the handle.

 My final comment on this blog is on the regularly asked question... so how much is this worth? The answer is... it depends on where you live. On the east coast, where this product was produced many markets are flooded and the price is low. In the midwest, it is sometimes a bit higher. If you want to figure out how much your piece is worth, look on eBay. A rare piece, or one that was stored in a garage or basement for 60 years may sell for as high as $60 or $70, especially if the original box with the number is with it.  I have several pieces in my collection with the original box and its the only way that I know the identification number. For a common piece that has been used all its life, it might be as little as $6. Many people do not know what they have. I have found things in Butter dish searches or hammered aluminum that never appear in Rodney Kent searches. Whatever you want to sell, show lots of pictures and the Rodney Kent mark. Put the number, if known, in the listing heading. Then hope you catch the eye of the collector, like me, who will pay a premium for a piece they don't have. 

Colored Glass Gift Pieces

 

 

I am sure that we all have those cute little pieces that were given as gifts on special occasions many years ago. Ultimately classified as worthless, these unstamped pieces were probably given to the thrift store where the glass part was separated from the metal holder. Fortunately for me, my mother held on to her pieces and so I have the full item. I will spend another blog on the metal holders and their properties. Today is just about the glass.

 

 



Many of the decorative pieces are early pieces, based on the glass identification and history. I have ton's of books that I reference and I will list their titles at the end of my blog today. You can easily find them on eBay or Amazon. I use these references to date the glass piece, hence the Rodney Kent holder. Above is the candy dish, a perfect red glass bowl sitting in the holder with a handle and an open flower (the rose shaped metal that is usually shaped as the finial on the lids of the more recognizable Rodney Kent pieces) used as feet. The glass bowl meets all the specifications of a dessert bowl in the  Anchor Hocking Royal Ruby line, produced 1938 - 1967 and then reintroduced in 1973 - 1977. Identified as the 4 1/4"  round fruit bowl, the dinnerware piece  that was so popular in the 40'sis interchangeable with the piece shown above.

 

 

This was another gift item, a candy dish with lid that used the same Ruby Red fruit bowl from the Anchor Hocking line. It, too,  had the flower pedestal. You will note that the tulip on the lid used as a finial on the right is different than the one on the left. I believe that the reason is because they were produced years apart. When I review my collection I have noticed that the older the items is (based on my research), the more detail and quality there is. The same detail that you see on the finial is also found on the footing when the flower is open. .

 

This lovely item was recently purchased from a lady in Florida through eBay. She told me that she originally acquired it years ago in its original box so I knew that the glass globe was the original.  It was up for sale for quite a while. When I see something that is new and I am not sure if it is really Rodney Kent, I usually just bookmark it. Then in my travels I found other holders with the wire handle, which is not characteristic of the Kent line. My final piece of research told me about the glass. This is exactly the right size (4  3/4" in diameter) for what was advertised by Anchor Hocking  as a "Moskeeto -Lite" These small globe shaped jars held a citronella candle and when emptied could be used as an "ivy vase". While my research has not turned up a maker, Helen Atlas Glass company produced a lot of cobalt glass. There is no mark on the glass, so I am still looking.

 

 

 

My last find of this blog is a piece Rodney Kent #463. The piece that I own is shown in Azur-ite Blue from the "Charm" collection of Anchor Hocking produced from 1950 - 1954.

 

 

This candy dish has the 4 3/4" dessert bowl  as its glass holder. Azur-ite  was marketed with the more familiar Jade-ite, as well as  Royal Ruby and Forrest Green in the "Charm" line. All were copyrighted colors of the Anchor Hocking Company. Azur-ite, Jade-Ite and Milk White glass colors were Fire King glass, a borosilicate glass that melts at a higher temperature than regular soda lime glass. I have also seen this piece sold with the Royal ruby bowl and the Forrest green, but it is hard to tell if some other wise dealer/collector knew enough to figure out what line the missing glassware could have come from and replaced it, himself. The Azur-ite color is by far the most prevalent and the only one that I feel confident in saying was original.

 

 

 

Just to review two previous blog pieces are butter dishes, obviously from the 1950's. Both have Milk White butter dish plates. I own #418 and the bottom is definitely stamped FireKing. I recently saw a butter dish in Jade-ite for sale on eBay, but I am not sure that it is an original color as the butter dish was used by Anchor Hocking in other glass butter dish designs and I am pretty sure this is marriage, not an originally purchased unit..

 

 

My reference books:

• Anchor Hocking Catalogs: 1940 - present, Phillip Hopper, 2003, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Anchor Hocking's Fire King and More,  Gene Florence, 1998, Collector Books, Paducah, Ky.
• Collectible Glassware from the 40's, 50's, and 60's, 10th ed.,  Cathy and Gene Florence, 2010, Collector Books, Paducah, Ky.
• Pyrex the Unauthorized Collector's Guide, Barbara E. Mauzy, 4th ed. revised, 2008, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Mauzy's Rare, Unusual and Unique Depression Glass, Barbara  & Jim Mauzy, 2008, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Collector's Encyclopedia of Depression Glass, 18th ed., Gene & Cathy Florence, 2008, Collector Books, Paducah, Ky.
• Depression Glass A collector's Guide, 7th ed., Doris Yeske, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Fostoria Serving the American Table 1887 - 1986, Leslie Pina, 1995, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Mauzy's Kitchen Glass, Barbara  & Jim Mauzy, 2004, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa. 

Pyrex and FireKing bowls in Cassaroles

All of those lovely serving pieces that had handles and lid, had a glass liner. It's pretty easy to figure out whose bowl was sold with it, because the shape of the aluminum bowl fits the glass liner perfectly. It doesn't wiggle or rock. And the lid sits on the glass perfectly. The earliest bowls used had tab handles. Tab handles were produced by Pyrex until 1936. So any item that came with that lid, was produced prior to that.

A good example is casserole trivet Rodney Kent #440:

 

There are a lot of the trays floating around and some of the lids, often not together.  This particular item is fitted with 1 1/2 Quart Pyrex Bowl (683-B-023-623-B  *  T.M.REG * PYREX  * Made in USA * B-H). Note how the lid fits perfectly around the bowl slightly flaring upward before folding over the  edge of the bowl. The notched openings for the tab handle fit exactly.

 

As you can see below, #440 came two ways  -- a flat picot edge and folded edge. Both are stamped #440 with the shield type of stamp ( see blog  on identifying marks).  If you look at the shapes of the indentations you will notice that the one with the folded edge has a much more rounded curve, leading me to believe that it used a later bowl with the "C" shaped handle, which had more of a curve to its bottom.

 

 

This is casserole #461 with  a similar bowl. The handles of the aluminum bottom, which is stamped with the shield stamp and has the arrow tab aluminum handles, which I believe predates the single flower handle, also has the lid that requires a tab handled Pyrex bowl. The bowl for this casserole has the imprint (683-B-023-623-B  *  T.M.REG * PYREX  * Made in USA * B-WW).

 

Below is the imprint of the bowl.

 

When Pyrex changed their handle style to the "C" handle,  Krischer Mfg. changed the lid style to on the still folded over the sides of the Pyrex bowl, but now covered the handles following its contour. The 1 1/2 Quart casserole below on a footed pedestal is #407 with the shield mark.

 

 

 

Krischer Mfg. also made a 2 Quart Casserole #434. There was no stamp on the aluminum carrier because it was stamped on the box. At this point, the lid changed into the dome type with the pie crust edge. It sat inside the bowl, no longer accommodating the glass insert's handle. The maker changed also. Now the glass liner was being purchased from Fire King.

 

This is the stamp from the original bowl that came with this set. Unfortunately it didn't make it through the mail because the glass was not separated from the lid, which was sitting upside down in the bowl and probably tapped it one too many times on its way from the seller to me. the mark is (T.M.REG  * FIRE KING * 7  * MADE IN USA * 2 QT) Having the imprint of the bottom, I was able to replace the bowl after searching eBay and the thrift stores.

 

Not to be outdone in the 2Quart casserole offerings, Pyrex provided a divided 2 quart bowl in another unstamped item,  #491 2 compartment casserole. It came with the domed piecrust lid. This bowl made it through the shipping process in one piece

 

 

The color advertisement was attached to the lid with a hole punched in it's center.

 

 

The divided bowl was stamped ( T.M.REG * PYREX  * Made in USA )

 

 

Below is the Casserole holder #418, which holds a 1 1/2  quart casserole bowl. It also has the domed pie crust lid. The bowl inside is a Pyrex Bowl with "C" handles. It is stamped:

                (023 1 1/2QT* TRADE MARK * PYREX *  R inside circle * B-18).

This also came with a green tag on a string wrapped round the flower finial of the lid, identifying it as  a Rodney Kent product. More about that in another blog.

 

 

 

 

 

The last lid style takes us back to a bowl from Pyrex. I do not have a handle on when this was produced, so maybe someone from a Pyrex group will know more. This bowl had no handles and the bottom had a pressed design of concentric circles.

 

 

The lid fit the opening exactly and it sat inside the rim of the glass. A  Casserole chafing dish also came with this same bowl. The imprint reads ( 595 * TM REG* PYREX * MADE IN USA * A-5)

 

You can see that as the glass insert changed, the lid changed with it.

 

This blog has covered all the known bowl inserts used in the many casserole iterations that were in the Rodney Kent line. There are at least 4 more types of casserole holders that I own. But they use the same glass sizes.