Thrifting

I have a real weakness for vintage kitchenware, especially the brightly colored pieces from the 1950s and ’60s. But I’ve learned that not every old enamel saucepan or mixing bowl is worth bringing home. One pattern I always keep an eye out for, though, is Cathrineholm Lotus. It’s one of the most recognizable mid-century kitchenware

I’ve spent enough time rummaging through thrift stores and secondhand kitchenware to know that some of the nicest vintage pieces are also the easiest to overlook. Pyrex Golden Acorn is a good example. At first glance, it’s a fairly ordinary ivory-colored baking dish. But look closer, and you’ll see a lovely gold pattern of acorns,

The plastic witch blow mold that’s been leaning in the garage since the kids were small isn’t just taking up space. Vintage Halloween decor has turned into one of the most active corners of holiday collecting, and most of what drives it isn’t some museum-grade rarity. It’s the ordinary stuff: the wax candle shaped like

Some vintage Pyrex patterns practically shout from a thrift store shelf. Eyes is different. At first glance, it is simply white glass decorated with a band of turquoise geometric shapes. Look again, though, and those tall diamond-like forms reveal white ovals with little turquoise crosses in their centers. The design is simple, strange, and very

A speckled beige bowl covered in tiny brown mushrooms is exactly the sort of thing you could miss on a crowded thrift store shelf. Forest Fancies doesn’t have the bright turquoise, pink, or orange colors people often associate with vintage Pyrex. It’s brown, cream, a little odd, and very obviously from the early 1980s. That’s

There are plenty of pieces of old colored glass sitting anonymously on thrift store shelves, but cobalt blue Royal Lace is one worth learning by sight. The color catches your attention first. Then you notice the pattern running through it, with flowers, curved bands, and delicate details pressed straight into the glass. It is elaborate

If most vintage Pyrex makes you think of bright flowers, cheerful turquoise, and neat little printed motifs, Terra is going to look slightly odd. In fact, that’s rather the point. Introduced in 1964, Terra was designed to mimic handmade earthenware, with a dark charcoal surface broken up by irregular brown rings. It looks earthy, rough,

There are plenty of pale green dishes masquerading as vintage Jadeite these days, but original Fire-King has a look that is surprisingly difficult to forget once you’ve handled a few pieces. The glass is opaque rather than transparent, with a soft, milky green color that sits somewhere between mint, celadon, and actual jade. It is

There is nothing obviously space-themed about Horizon Blue. No rockets, stars, astronauts, or little moons appear anywhere on it. Instead, you get a crisp turquoise-blue pattern on white Pyrex that looks floral in places and almost geometric in others. Without knowing the story, you’d probably just think it was a particularly nice piece of late-’60s

If a brown Pyrex bowl covered in tiny gold eagles and old-fashioned kitchen tools turns up among the usual thrift-store casserole dishes, take a closer look. That decoration isn’t simply gold-colored paint. Introduced in 1962, Early American was the first Pyrex pattern printed using 22-karat gold, giving a fairly ordinary piece of kitchenware a slightly

Some vintage Pyrex patterns are difficult to find because collectors got there first. Lucky in Love is different. There simply do not appear to have been many of these dishes in circulation to begin with. The pattern dates to 1959 and was most likely either a test piece or a very limited release, which goes

I cannot pass a pile of old cast iron at a thrift store without turning at least a few pieces over. Most of the time there is nothing particularly exciting underneath, but Griswold is one name that will make me put the skillet down, pick it straight back up, and have a much closer look.

I’ve built most of my kitchen from other people’s castoffs. Secondhand china and glass is sturdier than anything you’ll buy new, it’s a fraction of the price, and there’s something satisfying about eating off a dish that’s already survived eighty years of Sunday dinners before it landed in your cupboard. Most of what’s actually worth

I’ve been thrifting and collecting vintage kitchenware long enough to know that some things can sit untouched on a crowded estate-sale table all morning, while others barely make it through the door before somebody claims them. Sears’ Merry Mushroom pieces fall very firmly into the second category. If I spot those fat little orange and

Blue Cornflower is the pattern most CorningWare collectors are hoping to spot on a thrift store shelf, and the twist is that it’s also the easiest one to find. Corning made it from 1958 until production wound down in 1988, in numbers big enough that it still turns up in donation bins more than almost