It’s all about rare, hard-to-find, and one-of-a-kind Pyrex pieces on the show today. Bex Scott dares to wade into often-times controversial waters to discuss some of the rarest Pyrex that collectors avidly pursue. Personal feelings on what is rare and what is hard to find may vary, but these pieces are all frequently difficult to find and coveted by Pyrex lovers. 

Bex focuses in-depth on eight so-called Pyrex Unicorns based on an article from WorthPoint. The article says that scarcity of Pyrex depends on “condition, popularity, whether it’s a complete set, a pattern in unusual colors and shapes, a trading stamp exclusive, or a test piece or prototype” and by those laid-out guidelines Bex talks about everything from the beloved Lucky in Love pattern to the Blue Dianthus to the Starburst Cinderella serving casserole. She shares facts about how certain test pieces came by their names and what colors are most infrequently found. She also lists some rare pieces that real collectors have found in the wild. Collectors all have favorite patterns and pieces, and definitions on rarity may vary, but all can agree that the Pyrex gems in this episode are truly unique and worthy of hunting down.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• WorthPoint - “Pyrex Unicorns: 8 Elusive Patterns Collectors Pursue” by Adina Francis
• Shiny Happy Pyrex People
• Pyrex Passion
• Blue Dianthus 440 Cinderella bowl set
• Lucky in Love pattern
• Duchess casserole with warmer
• Gypsy Caravan pattern
• Hex 475 casserole in turquoise with underplate
• Atomic Eyes chip and dip
• Pink Stems pattern
• Starburst Cinderella serving casserole with warmer and lid

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Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex: 

• Website: PyrexWithBex.com
• Instagram: @pyrexwithbex

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Transcript

Bex Scott: [00:00:02 ] Hey everybody, it's Bex Scott and welcome to the Pyrex with Bex podcast, where, you guessed it, I talk about vintage Pyrex, but also all things vintage housewares. I'll take you on my latest thrifting adventures, talk about reselling, chat with other enthusiasts about their collections, and learn about a bunch of really awesome items from the past. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love listening to podcasts so you don't miss a beat.

Bex Scott: [00:00:31 ] Hey everybody, this is Bex Scott and you're listening to the Pyrex with Bex podcast. On today's episode, we are going to talk about a topic that is a little bit scary to me. I am by no means a Pyrex expert. I'm an avid collector. I love learning about it. And today I thought I would talk a little bit about rare and hard to find Pyrex pieces. Now, this is a topic that I know has gotten a lot of people in trouble on Facebook groups while talking to other collectors and kind of voicing their opinions on whether they think something is rare or hard to find. And I myself once asked in a popular Facebook group what the difference was between something that's rare, something that's hard to find, and something that's like a one of a kind. And the post caused so much trouble that the owner of the group had to take it down. And it just goes to show that there are true definitions of what is rare, hard to find, and one of a kind and what people believe it to be.

Bex Scott: [00:01:43 ] And what kind of sparked this podcast episode was an article that I found on Worthpoint. So most of the information that I'm going to be talking about is based on this article. So it may or may not be true. Take it with a grain of salt. But I did learn a ton from reading it and digging through the different parts of what they talked about in this article. And it's called Pyrex Unicorns: Eight Elusive Patterns Collectors Pursue. So factors that affect rarity, this is the first part of the article that they talk about. And it says "the scarcity of Pyrex pieces depends on several factors: condition, popularity, whether it's a complete set or if it's a pattern in unusual colors and shapes, a trading stamp program exclusive, or a test piece or prototype that wasn't produced. Some patterns that were promotional pieces or didn't appear on any standard production dishes weren't given an official name. So as these pieces have been discovered, collectors have made up names for them" and they give the example of the Golden Thistle. And this is something that's really cool to me because I actually didn't know this. I know that most of the Pyrex pieces out there have names, and that they were given these names at production, but it's really interesting to read that collectors have given other pieces names over the years.

Bex Scott: [00:03:16 ] Other patterns, like Angelfish, that was a name that was given by collectors. So it says, according to Shiny Happy Pyrex People, a site that I'm new to after reading this article, it's actually really cool. So head over to Shiny Happy Pyrex People, she has a book that you can buy, but she also has informational blogs that you can read, and she talks about her Pyrex friends and collectors that she knows who have found these rare, one of a kind pieces. They send her pictures and then she talks a little bit about them. So if you're interested in the really cool, kind of less known about pieces, check out her site. So it says "a site that documents rare finds, this 475 angel dish was found in New York in 2022, and it's only the second known dish of its kind". It says as well that there is an alternate color of gold on white that was discovered in 2021.

Bex Scott: [00:04:21 ] Next up in the article, they go into the eight patterns that collectors dream about, and the first one is Lucky in Love. This is one that I'm sure all avid Pyrex collectors know of, and it says that it's elusive because it was either a test or limited production piece. And according to the article, the price for it ranges between $1,800 to $9,000. And just a reminder, this is just what I'm reading from the article, what I've learned through my research, so it may or may not be accurate. So it says "nearly everyone in the Pyrex collecting community agrees that the most elusive piece ever created is the number 473 Lucky in Love casserole dish from 1959". It has little pastel pink hearts and green clovers and was a prototype. There's also a prototype of this dish without the pink hearts as well. And several of these have sold for four figures, including over $4,000 in 2015, $5,994 in a Goodwill auction in 2017, $9,000 in 2018, and $6,700 in 2019. And it was so loved by Pyrex enthusiasts that the company reissued it in 2018 as a modern pattern on clear glass in darker colors.

Bex Scott: [00:05:51 ] Next up we have the Blue Dianthus piece, and this one is pretty cool because I remember not too long ago in one of the Pyrex groups that I am a part of, somebody mentioned that they found one of the blue Dianthas Cinderella bowls at their local goodwill for something like $6.99, and if in fact it was true, which I'm sure it was, that would be a once in a lifetime find and super amazing for them to have that in their collection. So the Blue Dianthus remained a mystery until 2014, when a collector acquired a boxed set from the estate of a Corning employee. I went on to the Pyrex passion site and found an article from March 19th, 2014 talking a little bit about this Blue Dianthus, and it says that it in fact was produced as a sales test piece in 1963. And they discovered this because a collector acquired numerous vintage Pyrex items from the estate of a 50 year employee of Corning. And this is all information from the Pyrex Passion website, and one of the items they purchased was the three piece 480 casserole set in the original box. The box reveals the date of production as 1963. It shows that Blue Dianthus was a sales test pattern, so this was considered a Pyrex mystery that had been solved. And if you go to the Pyrex Passion website, you can see that there is a photo courtesy of a Flickr member, and it's the box with the stamp. It says 480 of one sales test. Kind of an awesome piece of history to see.

Bex Scott: [00:07:40 ] So for those of you who have never seen the Blue Dianthus, it came in the Cinderella bowls 441, 42, 43, 44 and the 483 piece casserole set 473, 74 and 75. Based on the backstamp, items dated before 1974, which we know it was now produced in 1963. So for those of you who haven't seen the Blue Dianthus before, it featured a blue floral design on opal that resembled th