Thrifting

Black Tulip is one of those vintage Pyrex finds that deserves a second look. Made in 1956–57, this white oval casserole has a dramatic charcoal-black floral pattern and originally came with a little brass-tone serving cradle. It’s lovely in its own right, but its place in Pyrex history makes it more interesting. I’m an avid

Mushroom-covered Pyrex, amber saucepans, and those little Lenox spice houses still give collectors plenty of reasons to rummage through somebody else’s old kitchen cupboards. The right find might complete a set, replace a much-loved bowl, or just be something you’re ridiculously pleased to have found for a few dollars. I’ve spent years thrifting and collecting,

A turquoise Pyrex bowl covered in little white hot air balloons is worth stopping for at a thrift store. But if you spot two matching bowls and a rather odd-looking metal holder, pay even closer attention. You may be looking at the complete 1958 Balloons chip-and-dip set, one of the most delightful serving sets Pyrex

The best 1970s kitchen collectibles are the ones you can recognize, check for damage, and enjoy in your own home. Think mushroom-covered canisters, ridiculously cheerful Pyrex, and the original avocado-green appliances, rather than every old pot someone has described as rare on an auction listing. I’ve spent years thrifting and collecting, and the thing that

Fire-King Sheaves of Wheat is one of the prettiest jadeite patterns you could hope to uncover in a thrift-store stack. Instead of the familiar plain or ribbed green plates, these dishes have little bundles of wheat molded into the glass. The design is subtle until you catch it in the light, and then it’s unmistakable.

Some of the most interesting vintage glassware is hiding in plain sight at thrift stores, particularly those simple white bowls, pastel creamers, and little serving dishes that don’t look especially remarkable at first glance. But some of those pieces could be Hazel-Atlas Platonite, a distinctive type of glassware that’s well worth getting to know if

The easiest way to recognize vintage Fire-King Charm dinnerware is to look for plates that are square, but not quite. Their four gently rounded corners and softly curved sides give them a wonderful 1950s look, especially when they’re stacked among ordinary circular dishes at a thrift store. And yes, even the little matching cups have

Empire’s Pumpkin Man looks as though he’s stepped straight out of an old Halloween postcard. He has a grinning jack-o’-lantern head, a rather smart jacket, trousers, and one hand raised to tip his hat. He’s charmingly ridiculous, in the very best way. And if you love collecting old holiday decorations, he’s a figure worth recognizing

Fire-King Alice is one of those vintage jadeite patterns I’d always stop to examine at a thrift store. Its soft green glass is lovely enough, but the delicate flowers molded into the surface make it something special. Even better, this pretty little dinnerware range has an unlikely history: American families once received some of it

Those little rectangular Pyrex dishes in red, blue, and yellow are worth a much closer look when you come across them at a thrift store. They’re part of the original Primary Colors refrigerator set, introduced in 1947, and they’re every bit as appealing today as they were in a midcentury kitchen. The set is known

That cheerful little jack-o’-lantern sitting on a thrift store shelf might be missing something rather important. If it’s a vintage Bayshore Pumpkin Witch from the late 1960s or 1970s, it should have a tall, pointed black witch’s hat. And unlike many Halloween blow molds, the hat wasn’t permanently attached. It was a separate piece that

Some vintage cookie jars are instantly recognizable, with painted faces or brightly colored fruit. Others are easy to mistake for ordinary kitchen pottery, especially when they’re sitting on a crowded thrift store shelf. One particularly interesting example looks more like an old-fashioned metal cooking vessel than something made to hold cookies. It has a dark,

Pyrex Brittany Blue is an easy pattern to miss, partly because it doesn’t look much like the familiar vintage Pyrex mixing bowls most people know. Its soft blue flowers, narrow decorative bands, and unusual casserole shapes belonged to the short-lived Hearth Group. Brittany Blue was manufactured from 1967 to 1968, so its run was brief

The General Foam Plastics black cat and pumpkin “Trick/Treat” blow mold is exactly the sort of vintage Halloween decoration I’d stop to investigate in a thrift store. It’s a small, light-up plastic ornament with a startled black cat and a cheeky jack-o’-lantern, and it has the sort of peculiar old-fashioned charm that today’s mass-produced Halloween

A golden-yellow Pyrex casserole covered in delicate gold flowers is worth a second look at the thrift store. It could be Golden Wreath, a short-lived promotional design introduced in late 1967 and made through 1968. Unlike the familiar Pyrex mixing bowl patterns that appeared in several sizes, this one was sold as a special gift

A vintage teapot doesn’t have to be covered in flowers or edged in gold to deserve a closer look. In fact, one of the most interesting American designs looks almost like a piece of modern sculpture. It’s round, wonderfully chunky, and has a hole through its middle. You could easily walk past it in a

Spring Blossom Green is the avocado-green Pyrex pattern often called Crazy Daisy, and it’s one I’d always give a second look at a thrift store. Those cheerful little flowers are pure 1970s, but the bowls and casseroles themselves are useful, well-designed kitchenware. I’d much rather find a good one that can earn its keep than

Butterfly Gold is the sort of vintage Pyrex I’d happily stop for in a thrift store, even a single bowl. Introduced in 1972, this cheerful gold-and-white pattern has flowers, leaves, and little butterflies curling across the glass. It’s unmistakably 1970s, but there’s something rather lovely about it, even in a modern kitchen. After years of

Franciscan Starburst is the vintage dinnerware to recognize by its spiky black stars, soft aqua, and yellow-green accents. Introduced in 1954, it has the sort of cheerful atomic-age design that can look like an odd assortment of old dishes until you know what you’re seeing. A lone cup or an unusually shaped serving dish deserves

Medium Green is the vintage Fiesta color I’d be particularly pleased to find on a thrift-store shelf. It’s a bright, rich green, somewhere between the softer original green and the deep Forest Green of the 1950s. At a glance, it might look like an ordinary solid-colored plate or bowl. But if you enjoy collecting old

The 1950s pastel Tupperware Wonderlier nesting bowl set is one of those thrift store finds that would have me heading straight for the checkout. Five beautiful bowls in soft pink, pale yellow, mint green, peach, and other lovely pastel shades, each with its own lid, all fitting neatly inside one another. It’s the sort of

Holt-Howard’s Cozy Kittens are a pair of 1950s ceramic salt-and-pepper shakers with slanted green eyes, polka-dot scarves, and a rather peculiar party trick. They were designed to meow when you turned them upside down. They’re exactly the sort of quirky vintage kitchenware I’d stop to investigate if I found them on a thrift-store shelf. I’ve

The vintage Pyrex casserole collectors call Tree of Life is officially named Saxony, and it’s easy to see why people remember it. The turquoise-blue dish is decorated with dark blue flowers, branches, and two little birds. It’s quite different from the brighter Pyrex patterns of the 1970s, and I’d certainly stop for a closer look

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