Things have been pretty hectic here lately, but I didn’t want to miss out on a chance to put some of my favorite red Pyrex pieces together for a Valentine’s Day display.  I have never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day, but this year I realized that it doesn’t have to be about chocolate and romance.  This year, Valentine’s Day will be about my love for my family, friends, pugs, and (of course) Pyrex.  Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

One of my all time favorite patterns is the golden sunflower found on these bowls.  Shapes found in this unusual pattern include 473, 475, 444, and 503.  Little is known about this pattern including when it is from and why there weren’t more pieces produced in this set.  The clear sunflower carafe shares the same sunflower pattern (sans stem and leaves) and the design of the carafe is similar to those found in the mid 1960s.  

So, I am currently working on a book about rare and hard to find Pyrex and I want to know if there is anyone else out there who has rare Pyrex that they would like featured in the book.  

The Pyrex collecting community has been AWESOME and I have had a lot of amazing submissions from people in the Facebook groups.  If I didn’t reach out to you, and I should have, please let me know!  I want to make this book as comprehensive as possible (at least until the next rare piece is discovered). 

Send me an email at hotforpyrex (at) gmail (dot) com if you want more information or have a picture to share.  I always love talking to other Pyrex addicts :)

In my opinion, Pyrex Family Flair doesn’t get the attention it deserves.  Produced for only a short time in the late 50s, the Family Flair series consisted of plates, cups, saucers, creamers, sugar bowls, as well as coordinating bowls.  
Family Flair bowls come in two different sizes: an oblong shape perfect for cereal and a smaller, more circular shape.  The bowls were produced in pale yellow, pink, and robin’s egg blue; however, every now and then non-standard colors surface.  Check out the pictures above for color comparisons between the standard colors and a few unusual color variations.
(Clockwise from top: Unusual turquoise (top) vs. standard blue (bottom); standard pale yellow (left) vs. unusual butterscotch (right); pink (top & bottom) vs. unusual red (middle))   

This lovely 474 just made the long and perilous journey from Canada to California via UPS.  I won’t lie and say I wasn’t worried the entire time it was in transit, but it was definitely worth the wait.  It is referred to as the 1962 Constellation casserole (promotional) in the Rogove book, but to me it is a Pyrex dream come true!

When I first started collecting vintage Pyrex, I went online and bought every book that I could find on it.  At the time, there wasn’t a lot of information available, but I ran across a book by Susan Rogove.  Five years later, I still periodically pull out Rogove’s book to pore over the books center color pages that showcase a mix of rare, common, and possibly mythical Pyrex dishes.  

One of the pieces pictured in Rogove’s book is the 443 goldenrod Fleur de Lis bowl pictured above (pic 1, bottom bowl).  In the book, it is referred to only as “2 ½ quart bowl (year unknown)”, but I prefer to refer to the bowl by its distinctive Fleur de Lis pattern on a goldenrod colored background.

The Goldenrod 443 is only one of a few colors available in the Fleur de Lis pattern.  In addition to goldenrod, the Fleur de Lis pattern can be found in the 475, 2.5 quart casserole, size in red (second picture), green, and blue (third picture).*  The blue 475 features a Fleur de Lis pattern in silver versus the typical gold pattern found on the red, green, and goldenrod versions.

*It is important to note that there may be additional colors and shapes available that feature the Fleur de Lis design; however, thus far I have only run across those mentioned above.