Not Your Typical Pyrex: The Dreamy Vintage Dishware To Search For At Thrift Stores

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Whether it's Butterprint, with its cute Amish farmers and harvest theme, the dots bowls with their primary colors, or the unicorn patterns like Cloverberry or Lucky in Love, Pyrex patterns get a lot of attention. But there's more to Pyrex dishware than the pattern printed on the glass. There's also the shape of the dish to consider. Vintage Pyrex comes in a wide range of shapes, from your basic round mixing bowls to divided casseroles to rectangular refrigerator bowls. In 1958, the brand introduced a new spin on the basic bowl: the Cinderella bowl.

The Cinderella bowl may be the shape you picture when you think of old-school Pyrex. Designed by John Philip Johnson, Cinderella bowls came in various sizes, from 1.5 pints to 4 quarts. What separated them from the standard round bowls was the two spouts or handles on each side, which made it easier to pour from the bowl and pick it up. Along with the mixing bowls, which nested inside each other, Pyrex also introduced casserole dishes with the Cinderella handles and grouped other casseroles, such as the rectangular Space Saver casserole dish, under the Cinderella umbrella.

What's in the name? In 1957, "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella" aired on TV, starring Julie Andrews. It was incredibly popular, with more than 100 million viewers. Perhaps the team at Corning was trying to cash in on the popularity of the musical. The name could also be a reference to another sought-after glass object — the slipper Cinderella wears and loses in the fairy tale.

The good news about Pyrex Cinderella bowls is that they aren't hard to find. However, some patterns are more ubiquitous than others. If you're hoping to get your hands on a full set of the super rare orange Butterprint Cinderella bowls, well, good luck to you. Other patterns, like Spring Blossom, Butterfly Gold, and even the turquoise Butterprint, are much easier to get your hands on. Pyrex produced the Cinderella bowls and casseroles from 1958 until 1986, when the company stopped making opal glassware entirely.

There are a few things to pay attention to when examining a Pyrex Cinderella bowl. One is the overall condition. The original Pyrex Cinderella bowls, in patterns like Gooseberry or Butterprint, are over 60 years old. After decades of use, they sometimes show it. In some cases, a bowl's design may have a minimal amount of fading or marks, but in more dramatic cases, the entire pattern may be almost completely erased. While you may not find a bowl in mint condition, the fewer scrapes and marks there are, the more valuable the vintage Pyrex is.

Another thing to look at is the stamp on the underside of the bowl or casserole dish, as that will clue you in to the size and style. Cinderella mixing bowls will have a model number ranging from 441 for the smallest (1.5 pints) bowl to 444 for the largest (4 quarts). Cinderella casseroles have model numbers 471 for the smallest (1.5 pints) to 475 for the largest (2.5 quarts).