Bex Scott welcomes guest Ruth from Periwinkle Collectibles on Instagram to the show to talk all about Federal Glass, among other things. Ruth teaches Bex some fascinating facts about Federal Glass, their patterns, which country they released certain items in, and how to spot the collectibles in the wild. Not every thrift trip can be single-minded, however, so Bex and Ruth talk about some of the other vintage items they search for and enjoy as well.
Bex Scott welcomes guest Ruth from Periwinkle Collectibles on Instagram to the show to talk all about Federal Glass, among other things. Ruth teaches Bex some fascinating facts about Federal Glass, their patterns, which country they released certain items in, and how to spot the collectibles in the wild. Not every thrift trip can be single-minded, however, so Bex and Ruth talk about some of the other vintage items they search for and enjoy as well.
Ruth claims Pyrex collecting was her gateway into other milk glass companies, patterns, and makers, and admits that in the early days, she would find something she thought was Pyrex only to bring it home and learn it wasn’t. Through those research lessons, she found that something she initially thought was Fire King was in fact Federal Glass and that sent her on a whole new collecting journey. Bex learns about the sheer number of varieties of dot colors and sets available in Federal Glass, how so many promotional items came to be made of Federal Glass, and how to differentiate Federal from other items in the wild. Join this episode to learn what Facebook Group to join for identifying Federal, what pieces are most sought-after, and exactly how many collections Ruth draws the line at maintaining.
Resources discussed in this episode:
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Contact Ruth | Periwinkle Collectibles
Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex:
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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. Hey everybody, this is Bex Scott and you are listening to the Pyrex with Bex podcast. And today I am very excited to have Ruth from Periwinkle Collectibles. Welcome back Ruth.
Ruth: [00:00:41] Hi Bex, it's good to be back.
Bex Scott: [00:00:44] How have you been since we last talked?
Ruth: [00:00:46] Oh, it's been a great, wonderful summer. But the days are getting shorter, the leaves are starting to fall, and it's time to start thinking about collections, isn't it?
Bex Scott: [00:00:57] It is. And my favorite Halloween fall season for Pyrex displays is just around the corner and I, as everybody knows, am an avid Pyrex collector. You collect Pyrex yourself, but today I'm very excited because you are going to talk to us about a different collection that you have. So maybe just kick us off and let us know what you're going to be chatting about.
Ruth: [00:01:23] Sure, sure. I thought that Pyrex, at least for me, was a gateway into a lot of other milk glass companies and patterns and makers, and many of us have found something at the thrift, found something out in the wild, brought it home thinking it was Pyrex. Started doing a little bit of research. And for me, this was before Google Image and before AI put all kinds of weird things out there, but it was before Google Image, so you'd have to try and describe what you had found to figure out, well, this isn't Pyrex, because it takes a while to realize that most Pyrex pieces have Pyrex stamped on them. And so you find a pretty white bowl at the thrift store with a really cute pattern, or what you think is really cute. And I mean, now I just, I flip things over and look for the maker mark. But back then I would just go oh 2.99 and this is pretty, in the cart it goes, and I'd bring it home and I'd go, oh, I found this great Pyrex. And then I'd start looking at it and trying to figure out the pattern and oh my gosh, I realized it wasn't Pyrex. Well, then what the heck was it? Well, I found quite a few pieces that had a really large capital F in a shield and I thought, wow, I found Fire-King! And I went on, this is the days of Facebook groups being the only place to really share things.
Ruth: [00:02:51] This is kind of early days of Instagram and before a lot of other social media. I remember going onto a Fire-King group and excitedly sharing what I had found. And wow, I got politely but quickly schooled that what I had found was not Fire-King, but it was Federal. And I'm like Federal? What the heck is that? So I started looking up the patterns of that and going, oh. So I mean, Federal Glass was a company that was around for, I think, around 80-ish years in the States. I think they were in Ohio. They started off making, I think it was like pressed glass in the early 1900s. They made an awful lot of depression glass. And I'll be honest, even though I lived through the 80s and 90s, I have never collected depression glass in my life. A lot of my friends were collecting depression glass during that time, but I never really got into it. It didn't, it didn't appeal to me because depression glass, that's a whole nother discussion. But Federal made a lot of depression glass. They made a lot of barware. But what I particularly really enjoy is the opal ware or the, what people call milk glass, and the pretty patterns that I thought were made by Federal. Because when I flipped the bowl or the casserole or the mug over, it had an F and a shield. But I also discovered that, well, Federal made an awful lot of milk glass or opal ware, they also sold what was called blanks to decorator companies. And so I live in Canada, and what I have learned over the years is that in particular, there was a company outside of Toronto that did a lot of decorating of Federal blanks and other Fire-King and a few other blanks too, and they were called Cutler. C U T L E R. So they, like, printed on Federal blanks. And that's kind of the main reason why the Federal glass that's found in Canada, it's a lot of different patterns. I mean, there is some overlap, but there's quite a lot of patterns that are more commonly found in Canada than in the States.
Bex Scott: [00:05:19] Interesting. I am already learning things from you because I had no idea. I had heard of Cutler and I'd heard of Federal Glass, but that is very cool.
Ruth: [00:05:29] Yeah, I mean Cutler, they bought blanks from other companies and they did a lot of glassware. But basically their thing was they decorated glassware. You know, they painted onto items made by other companies. So there's a lot of Federal Glass in Canada that is tourist ware, you know, mugs with city, city and town names on them and festivals and hockey teams and businesses and things like that. And of course, it exists in the States also, and Federal in the states was also making decorated milk glass and other glass items. But it explains why some patterns show up in Canada in way larger quantities. There was a gas company in Quebec, I believe it was, that gave away the circus bowls. That's a pattern that a lot of Federal collectors, or you've probably seen it too, it has like red, orange, green, blue pattern around the edge of various circus animals and circus carts and things. Well, that was a giveaway from a gas station in Quebec.
Bex Scott: [00:06:41] No way.
Ruth: [00:06:43] Yes way.
Bex Scott: [00:06:44] I would love to get that from a gas station. Why can't we get that from gas stations now?
Ruth: [00:06:48] I know. When I could, when I could afford gas in the 80s, it was Petro Can. And all we got was those ugly glasses that said every garage sale you ever go to in Canada. But this was an earlier time because I think Federal Glass was out of business by 1980, for sure. I've seen a whole bunch of different sources. Some say 77, some say 79, whatever. By 1980, they were gone. So a lot of this stuff was given away in the 60s and 70s. But that's why there's so many circus bowls in Canada, in particular in Ontario and Quebec. And maybe the company was in Ontario as well, but definitely found way more in the eastern half of Canada than the western half of Canada.
Bex Scott: [00:07:31] So has that made the circus bowls more popular in the States for collectors?
Ruth: [00:07:37] Yeah, yeah, that does do that because they're harder to find. And isn't that what always happens with collectors is the sought-after is the harder to find? Is that just the way we are as people? Is that just...
Bex Scott: [00:07:54] Yeah. We always want what we can't have.
Ruth: [00:07:56] Exactly, exactly. So it was like the circus bowls. And then there was also the dots. There's way more of them that show up. And that's in particular one of my favorite patterns, because along the way, as I was looking for Pyrex, I found a brown dot Federal mug that I thought was kind of cute. So I brought it home and started looking at how many colors does that come in? And I went, well, I'm going to see what I can find. And eight years later, 27 mugs later, I'm still finding new ones.
Bex Scott: [00:08:35] That was going to be my next question. How many different dot colors does it come in?
Ruth: [00:08:40] Oh boy. Well, yeah. First of all, there's two dot variations. There's one where all the dots are the same size, basically, and another where there's two sizes of dots. And then the shape of the mug, there's three variations. So the colors, I think basically it's about 6 or 8 per shape. And then on the two size dots I've only ever been able to find or hear of about 6. We have on the Facebook group, the Federal Facebook group that I belong to, which Bex is going to link in the podcast.
Bex Scott: [00:09:23] Yes. And they finally just accepted me. They actually accepted me really fast. So now I can drool over all of the beautiful photos.
Ruth: [00:09:30] And it's, it's, there are some books out there on Federal, but not really that concentrate on the milk glass side of it. They're more the depression glass and the pressed glass type of stuff. So in that Facebook group, there's a lot of albums in there which a lot of Canadian and American collectors have contributed to, to help with that body of knowledge and help us figure out what was Cutler. And people have actually found some Cutler catalogs as well. But to help us figure out what was the actual pattern names, because there is no official websites or books, a lot of Federal patterns have nicknames, and there's multiple nicknames for a lot of the patterns. And then we find a catalog page and realize the name is actually not at all what anyone has ever called it.
Bex Scott: [00:10:22] Mm. Yeah. Kind of like Pyrex with some of the strange nicknames that the bowls get out there.
Ruth: [00:10:29] Yeah, yeah. Because there was no real company information. And so people make things up, like for example, for Federal there's a - oh, there's also a dot pattern that I didn't even talk about, which most people refer to as atomic, where it's a dot with like a little kind of swirl circle around it. I mean, one, no company in the 50s or 60s or 70s - this is just one of my pet peeves - ever named anything atomic. That name is retroactive. But that aside, that pattern name is actually called Bolero. And there's catalog proof in the Federal group for anyone who wants to argue that one. Printed proof. But the dots, I don't think, ever really had a name that we found so far because they were mostly Cutler. Some were released in the States. But that explains why on the dot bowls there's five different sizes, and Federal bowls are measured, similar to how Pyrex bowls are, across the top in inches for the people who don't like to talk the Pyrex models of 401 or 402 or whatever. Some people think of them in regards to how many inches they are. But Federal there's no molds, i.e. size numbers on them. So they're always called 5 inch, 6 inch, 7, 8, 9 inch, etc. so there's basically five sizes for the regular mixing bowls. There's no Cinderella bowls, there's no space savers, there's no divideds, but there is covered casseroles. There is a few baking dishes. But anyhow, sorry, where was my brain going with that? I was talking about the differences. But that's why people, that's why there are kind of select colors for the dots in 5 to 9 inch, whereas 9 inches super rare has only been found in a couple of colors and a 5 inch in a few more colors, but the 6, 7 and 8, which were a typical 3 bowl set for Federal, came in even more colors.
Ruth: [00:12:44] Like, I think there's 8 or 10 colors for every size there. So when people say, well, what was the official set? What did it look like? Well, there's only a few catalog pages showing some of those variations. And of course, over time sets have been broken up and also a lot of those bowls were sold individually. So people would buy bowls and make up their own sets. You know, they'd pick, you know, a yellow 5 inch and a pink 7 inch and et cetera, et cetera. There are a few standard color combinations that were released, and that's just for one pattern. The dots. Stories like that surround almost every pattern where Blossom Time, for instance, there are certain colors you can find all over the place in Canada, but in the States, they they have a whole other color because they're, Federal made it, the pattern, and here Cutler made the pattern. Or, like some Pyrex stuff, just certain patterns were shipped to certain parts of the country or certain, you know, Kmart bought this product line and Kresge bought this other one and The Bay... I don't think The Bay and Eaton's carried Federal because the quality of Federal is different than Pyrex.
Bex Scott: [00:14:07] Mhm. I was going to say it. How do you explain it? Is it a little less in quality would you say, than Pyrex?
Ruth: [00:14:14] I would say, yeah. I mean that's, that's my personal opinion, just based upon the hundreds of pieces that I've seen over the years. And what happens if you, if your Federal piece accidentally goes into the dishwasher, it deteriorates much quicker than the end of the year is the 70s and 80s Pyrex that, you know, the odd dishwasher trip doesn't usually do too much harm, but Federal, half a dozen dishwasher trips can turn the whole thing into a piece of opal.
Bex Scott: [00:14:48] You'd be left with a lot of opal in your collection.
Ruth: [00:14:50] Yeah, well, and Federal had released a lot of opal. Like, it's very common to find just the plain nesting bowl that's Federal at the thrift or the flea or garage sale or whatever. And it can be hard to tell whether it was released that way or whether it was dishwasher, but if it's shiny, generally it was released that way. So, I mean, I probably find 15 - 20 opal Federal bowls for every one pattern that I find, at least, if not more. And I probably have, okay, I have a few sets of 5 to 9 inch oval and some of the sizes, again, way more common to find. 6, 7 and 8 inch super common, 5 fairly common, the bigger ones a little less common because sometimes it's just what people use and they also scratch on the interior quicker, like the pattern wears off faster. The interior scratches easier. Metal mixers do a real number on them. And while there's, you know, the school of people who are like, well, you know, you got to use, do you use it? You know, always the first question out of non-collectors mouth. Do you use it? And for Federal, yeah. You know, I use it, but I carefully hand wash it and hand use a gentle linen cloth and dry it and put it back on the shelf so it retains its shine because it, 100% agree with you, it does not have the quality and also the baking durability. It doesn't have that Pyrex baking durability. But that doesn't mean, it's still beautiful. It came in a lot of really pretty pretty patterns and some that are very highly sought-after. Are you aware of any of the Federal patterns or anything that's crossed your radar that you thought was?
Bex Scott: [00:16:51] I think the only ones that I really knew of were, I'd heard of the circus, the stripes, there's the dots and then the daisy ones I've seen before.
Ruth: [00:17:02] Right, right, right. The daisy. And then there's also a mushroom set that's quite sought-after.
Bex Scott: [00:17:09] Everybody loves anything mushroom.
Ruth: [00:17:10] Yeah, but it's also, it's primary colored mushrooms.
Bex Scott: [00:17:15] Okay, I like that.
Ruth: [00:17:16] Yeah, yeah. So it has like the yellow, the orange. There's like kind of 5, which I know is more than actually primary colors. But it was like a yellow, orange, red, green and blue that the mushroom set also comes in, and again, a kind of a printed band around the upper edge, which is a fairly common thing for, and it was a, I believe that one was a Cutler one as well. I think that one was a Cutler one as well. There's also some sort of harlequin or diamond type patterns that some people are very fond of. I mean, it's, right now it's the bright colors that appeal to people. There's a pattern that looks like French onion that Federal actually called Bucks County.
Bex Scott: [00:18:05] Hmm. Where does that name come from?
Ruth: [00:18:08] No clue. No clue. You'll rarely find it online under that name unless somebody has a box. But that's what it's called. There's a couple of variations on the kind of gingham tablecloth red and white check look.
Bex Scott: [00:18:25] Oh, I've seen those. Do they come in little cereal bowls?
Ruth: [00:18:28] Yes, they - oh, yeah, that's true. We didn't talk about cereal bowls, which is a shape size that Pyrex didn't really--
Bex Scott: [00:18:37] -- yeah--
Ruth: [00:18:38] -- didn't really do. I mean, Fire-King did a lot of, but, and so when you find them out in the wild with that little, that little cereal bowl, which I think most people nowadays would more call it a snack bowl, but, you know, they're even smaller than 401s. They have often a band of color around them. And they're generally, when you find them, they're either Anchor Hocking/Fire-King, or they are Federal. And just a quick flip to the bottom of the bowl looking for, you know, either one of the Fire-King logos or the Anchor Hocking logo, or the infamous F, large capital F in a shield to let you know which it is. And there's some patterns that kind of look like they might be Fire-King. There's a little bit, you know, there's popular patterns, like the KitchenAid pattern that Hazel-Atlas put out, which is like the turquoise or commonly turquoise, it looks like a coffee pot and a bowl and cups and plates that go around the outer rim of the bowl of Federal did a version of that, which I think that one was the Cutler one, I can't remember. Got to look on the albums on the group, but that I've only found one of, that's a bit harder one to find as well because it's pretty, you know, Hazel-Atlas had the just turquoise. Every single bowl was turquoise. Federal, of course, always does the color variation where each size of bowl is a different color. And then there's also some black and gold patterns. There's some all gold patterns. No clear lids, the lids, the lidded casseroles always have opal lids with a fairly distinctive knob shape.
Bex Scott: [00:20:28] And are the lids as hard to find in Federal as they are in Pyrex now?
Ruth: [00:20:33] Oh, harder. Harder, harder.
Bex Scott: [00:20:35] Oh no. Harder.
Ruth: [00:20:38] Because they didn't release as many, they didn't do, like they only had, there's only a few - I'm trying to think if it's 3 or 4 covered casseroles that came with lids. And those casseroles are, some people even call them bowls because they're round with sort of a shape at the bottom that's very reminiscent of the Fire-King splash proof bowls, but it's only on half of the bowl. It's like the top, it's like they couldn't decide who to flatter with their repetition of that pattern, you know, Pyrex with the roundness or Fire-King with the splash. So it's like a hybrid between the two. That's how, I don't know really if that's what was their intent, but that's how I've always thought of them in the casseroles and then the bakeware. There's kind of an oval dish, a couple of them, but the shapes are much, much more limited, you know, which is also probably contributed to their, they were sold for less money, sold by the lower end department stores, from what I've been able to see from advertisements and such, because they weren't as durable, they scratched up faster, they broke faster. Not quite Glass Bake. Sorry, not a fan.
Bex Scott: [00:21:56] That's okay. I'm not either.
Ruth: [00:21:58] But you know, you look at Glass Bake sideways and it cracks, scratches. Federal at least, you know, sure, maybe it scratches as fast, but at least it's pretty.
Bex Scott: [00:22:15] It is. And speaking of not being a fan, is there a pattern in Federal or a couple patterns that you would say have a resounding, like the fan base isn't there for them, they're maybe considered ugly or not as desirable? Because I know in Pyrex it's usually Old Orchard and Forest Fancy that doesn't have a lot of love. So is there anything, anything in Federal like that?
Ruth: [00:22:44] There's a pattern that's kind of black, a little bit of black with some brown flowers that not too many people are fond of. There's a pattern called Bouquet that comes in a dark teal that people aren't as fond of, because there's quite a bit of it out there. Whereas actually there's one size in that pattern and color that is super desirable because they barely released any. It's weird. It's one of those things where what is it, like, Woodlawn, where there's, like tons of 401 to 403, but the 404 is hard to find. Or was it Snowflake Garland where the 401 to 403 is, you know, it's a middle of the road pattern, but the 404 is super hard to find. So therefore people like it more. There's some of that going on. There's also a gold-only pattern, I think it's called Golden Glory, that was quite common. You've probably seen it. It kind of looks like gold bushes.
Bex Scott: [00:23:52] Oh yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Ruth: [00:23:54] Yeah. And it was actually released twice. So that's why there's so much of it. It was first released in the, oh, I'm trying to remember, in the late 50s. Because I'm fond of it, because it's the pattern I grew up with, it's what my mother had. Right?
Bex Scott: [00:24:11] Yeah. You have the memories associated with it.
Ruth: [00:24:13] Right. But the pattern itself is not very popular. And then it was rereleased again, I think in the 70s when they were trying not to go under. So there's that. The golden brown, there isn't as many brown patterns as there is in Pyrex. I mean, there isn't as many patterns, period. But some of them are just, they're just, they're cute, they're adorable. They come in a lot of variations. And heck, we live in Canada where there's actually more of it. So I, I at first would leave it behind all the time because I was like, no, no, I'm only collecting Pyrex, I'm only collecting Pyrex. And then as you collect more of something and it gets harder to find and you start looking at the other, you start, you know, because there's generally very little monogamy in glass collecting, but you just start looking, you know, at the other things available and the other patterns and bringing them home and kind of going, oh, because I remember saying to some of my friends, no, I don't. I brought this home, isn't it pretty? And they're like, didn't you say you don't collect Federal? That was like, you know, 2000.
Bex Scott: [00:25:27] That sounds familiar with me, too. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:25:32] And before you know it, you're collecting it.
Bex Scott: [00:25:35] Yeah. I've slowed down a lot on the Pyrex collecting lately, and maybe Federal is my next new thing that I have to to collect. So I'm looking at all these bright, cheery photos, and there's one in the vintage Federal Glass Facebook group and it's of these really nice boxes. So does Federal have a box for each dish that's as nice as the Pyrex ones?
Ruth: [00:26:01] I honestly don't know because there just, there hasn't, I mean, there's some boxes out there, especially for those Federal made a lot of snack sets and boxes always survived for the snack sets because they weren't an everyday use type of, I don't know if everybody in the audience is familiar with a snack set. It's kind of like a large, generally oval-ish plate with a little raised and then indented smaller circle where you would put a cup and it was made for party use where you could hold this plate with the cup that was held in place with the little glass lip on the plate with a bit of food, you know, and your tea, and still stand and chat with people and be able to, you know, yeah, lift up your... Yeah there's an adorable pattern that kind of looks like cannabis that's like black, turquoise and pink. I can't remember the exact name of it. A lot of people like that. There's one in the snack sets of Federal one I think that's like a little pastel houses that are cute. I haven't delved into the world of snack sets other than looking at them, because I draw the line at 47 collections.
Bex Scott: [00:27:17] Just 47. 48 is too many. 47 is okay though.
Ruth: [00:27:20] There has to be a line, right? There has to be.
Bex Scott: [00:27:22] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:27:23] There's also because Federal did far more promotional items. They made promotional items with images on them that today we would not find socially acceptable.
Bex Scott: [00:27:39] Mhm. Mhm.
Ruth: [00:27:40] Okay. For certain banks or teams that had images that were derogatory to various, and in particular Indigenous, parts of the population. Some people collect those because they say it, because it's important to acknowledge the mistakes we made in the past. And some people choose to not go there at all. You know, it's a personal, that's a personal choice. But there's, there seems to be quite a bit more of that in Federal than there, you know, I can't, I don't know if I've ever seen any Pyrex that had what we would consider to be an offensive image.
Bex Scott: [00:28:25] I'm trying to think maybe some of the coffee mugs.
Ruth: [00:28:28] Yeah, true. Some of the sayings.
Bex Scott: [00:28:31] Mhm. But nothing out of like the patterned dishes or bowls that I can think of.
Ruth: [00:28:37] Yeah. There was a full set of bowls with a black silhouette of an Indigenous person with feathers in their hair that there's a lot of controversy about. Some people, you know, really think it's great. Other people think it's offensive. That's up to the individual to make their choice. For me, luckily that was released in the States. It doesn't show up here, so I don't have to, I don't have to look at it on the shelf and go is this is too offensive to go in the cart? Because it's important to acknowledge, you know, mistakes made in the past. But I don't particularly want to take pictures of it and glorify it in any way. So there's that. There's a lot of, you know, the office culture mugs. You know, what was acceptable to have on a mug in the 70s is often not acceptable today, thank goodness.
Bex Scott: [00:29:40] Yes.
Ruth: [00:29:41] A lot of, a lot of tourist ware and things like that. And a lot of glassware. There's glass canisters that Federal made that a lot of people misidentify as other companies. They call, the Federal company called them, I was going to say store-and-go, but I don't know if that's quite the right color. They came, they looked very similar to the Atterbury Scroll pattern that, I don't know. Are you familiar with any of this?
Bex Scott: [00:30:13] I don't think so. I'm gonna have to look them up because I really like canisters.
Ruth: [00:30:17] Yeah. So there were glass canisters with glass lids that had a plastic gasket. Not just all around the lip, but across the bottom as well. They came, Federal released them in oh, I think amber, clear, turquoise, and a kind of aurora borealis finish. I hunted for years to find every single color. They came in a bunch of shapes as well. I think an avocado green maybe is, no, I don't think Federals came in avocado green. Part of the problem is they look very, very similar to another company's gloss. So there's a lot of, and they're, none of them are stamped, but there is catalog showing Federal as hey, you know we make this. Because they made a lot of pressed glass in their history.
Bex Scott: [00:31:15] That makes it tricky to identify then. You definitely need to find that catalog to make sure you have the legitimate piece.
Ruth: [00:31:23] It's in the album, it's in the albums on the group. But so I think it's by color that you can tell from what company is what company. I just, I'm just trying to think what colors I have in my personal collection, because I tried hard to just find the Federal ones, which are easier to find here in Canada than other places.
Bex Scott: [00:31:45] Yeah, that's another thing I'm going to add to my list then to search for in the stores. I'm sure it's not easy to find though.
Ruth: [00:31:52] The those those plastic gaskets just didn't hold up like the...
Bex Scott: [00:31:56] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:31:57] Like the beautiful ground glass stoppers and edges on the Belgium canisters. You know, the bubble top, Belgium canisters that we all like or the Takahashi glass canisters with the ground edges. I have a little, I think that's collection 42.
Bex Scott: [00:32:22] I love that. I'm going to go and count my collections now.
Ruth: [00:32:26] I'm joking. And then I'm thinking, wait, am I really?
Bex Scott: [00:32:31] Like I'm not actually.
Ruth: [00:32:35] From Federal I always think, no, I have everything I want and then I find or a friend finds and they go, do you have the 5 inch solid colored bowl in, you know, and they name a color. And I look at my list and I go, dang, I have the other 5 colors. I don't have that one. Yeah. So I now, for Federal, I keep a list of the things that I don't have because it's easier than keeping a list of the things I do have.
Bex Scott: [00:33:07] Mhm. That's a smart way to do it.
Ruth: [00:33:09] Yeah. Because recently, fairly recently I found a 9 inch dot nesting bowl in turquoise. If it was in the Pyrex world it would almost be called rare. Definitely hard to find. And there's, there hasn't been a lot of them. And that's one that I actually, someone in Alberta had found it and I actually, yeah, coughed up and had to make that one mine.
Bex Scott: [00:33:41] Yeah you invested in it.
Ruth: [00:33:43] I invested. Yeah. That's the right way up. I really wanted it because I had the 5, 6, 7 and 8 in that color. So it just it had to be mine. But the vast majority of the Federal pieces I have are, I'd say 95% of them are from Canada, and 85% of them I found, I found locally or, you know, friends found locally because I have a lot of friends that collect locally. And what do we do? We find for each other and we trade. Right?
Bex Scott: [00:34:19] That's the fun part of it. Making friends and finding things for each other and buying and trading. And that's what makes this whole addiction or hobby or however you want to explain it or justify it, that's what makes it fun.
Ruth: [00:34:37] Serotonin is important.
Bex Scott: [00:34:39] Yeah. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:34:41] Definitely. It's almost more fun to find something that someone else has been looking for.
Bex Scott: [00:34:48] Exactly. Yeah. You can score their holy grail.
Ruth: [00:34:53] Yeah, yeah. Speaking of holy grails, beside the 9 inch turquoise that I was so happy to add to my collection, I actually found the batter bowl, a dot, red dot batter bowl. The white ones are a little bit more common for Federal, but I found a dot batter bowl at the thrift store.
Bex Scott: [00:35:12] Oh wow.
Ruth: [00:35:13] Last year or the year before? It was two years ago. Yeah, definitely two years ago, because I happened to be at a whole opposite end of the city than I normally am for an appointment and went, oh man, I have, I'm on my lunch still - wink wink - and I have time to... That's okay. I'm retired now, it doesn't matter. I was rushing back to the, rushing back to work and went, oh man, I'm driving right by this thrift store I never get to. Quickly swung in, raced up and down a few aisles and there it was for 4.99.
Bex Scott: [00:35:50] Oh my gosh.
Ruth: [00:35:51] And I went, the thrift gods were looking out today.
Bex Scott: [00:35:54] The rays of sunshine came down into the store. It was right there. And they were singing. And yeah, I can see it.
Ruth: [00:36:03] Angels sing.
Bex Scott: [00:36:05] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:36:09] That's the feeling when you find something you've been looking for on the thrift store shelf.
Bex Scott: [00:36:15] Yeah. You start to float and everything is just perfect. That's exactly how I feel.
Ruth: [00:36:21] You hug it to yourself.
Bex Scott: [00:36:23] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:36:26] Do you have a cart? You put it in the cart, you put your coat over it.
Bex Scott: [00:36:29] Yes. Yeah. Nobody else can see that because they will try and steal it.
Ruth: [00:36:35] Sadly, yes. Absolutely. And it doesn't matter how badly you have to go to the washroom, you do not leave your cart outside of the washroom with the precious item in it.
Bex Scott: [00:36:46] Well, on that cheerful note. I have learned a ton today about Federal Glass, and I think I'm going to have to have you back for another episode to teach me more about Federal and all of these other 47 collections that you have. But thank you so much for giving me all your knowledge today. I know it's just the tip of the iceberg, but I have to make sure that everybody joins that vintage Federal Glass group. We'll put that in the show notes, and then make sure you follow Ruth at Periwinkle Collectibles on Instagram as well.
Ruth: [00:37:23] Thanks, Bex. It's been a pleasure.
Bex Scott: [00:37:25] Thanks so much for joining me, Ruth.
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. Hey everybody, this is Bex Scott and you are listening to the Pyrex with Bex podcast. And today I am very excited to have Ruth from Periwinkle Collectibles. Welcome back Ruth.
Ruth: [00:00:41] Hi Bex, it's good to be back.
Bex Scott: [00:00:44] How have you been since we last talked?
Ruth: [00:00:46] Oh, it's been a great, wonderful summer. But the days are getting shorter, the leaves are starting to fall, and it's time to start thinking about collections, isn't it?
Bex Scott: [00:00:57] It is. And my favorite Halloween fall season for Pyrex displays is just around the corner and I, as everybody knows, am an avid Pyrex collector. You collect Pyrex yourself, but today I'm very excited because you are going to talk to us about a different collection that you have. So maybe just kick us off and let us know what you're going to be chatting about.
Ruth: [00:01:23] Sure, sure. I thought that Pyrex, at least for me, was a gateway into a lot of other milk glass companies and patterns and makers, and many of us have found something at the thrift, found something out in the wild, brought it home thinking it was Pyrex. Started doing a little bit of research. And for me, this was before Google Image and before AI put all kinds of weird things out there, but it was before Google Image, so you'd have to try and describe what you had found to figure out, well, this isn't Pyrex, because it takes a while to realize that most Pyrex pieces have Pyrex stamped on them. And so you find a pretty white bowl at the thrift store with a really cute pattern, or what you think is really cute. And I mean, now I just, I flip things over and look for the maker mark. But back then I would just go oh 2.99 and this is pretty, in the cart it goes, and I'd bring it home and I'd go, oh, I found this great Pyrex. And then I'd start looking at it and trying to figure out the pattern and oh my gosh, I realized it wasn't Pyrex. Well, then what the heck was it? Well, I found quite a few pieces that had a really large capital F in a shield and I thought, wow, I found Fire-King! And I went on, this is the days of Facebook groups being the only place to really share things.
Ruth: [00:02:51] This is kind of early days of Instagram and before a lot of other social media. I remember going onto a Fire-King group and excitedly sharing what I had found. And wow, I got politely but quickly schooled that what I had found was not Fire-King, but it was Federal. And I'm like Federal? What the heck is that? So I started looking up the patterns of that and going, oh. So I mean, Federal Glass was a company that was around for, I think, around 80-ish years in the States. I think they were in Ohio. They started off making, I think it was like pressed glass in the early 1900s. They made an awful lot of depression glass. And I'll be honest, even though I lived through the 80s and 90s, I have never collected depression glass in my life. A lot of my friends were collecting depression glass during that time, but I never really got into it. It didn't, it didn't appeal to me because depression glass, that's a whole nother discussion. But Federal made a lot of depression glass. They made a lot of barware. But what I particularly really enjoy is the opal ware or the, what people call milk glass, and the pretty patterns that I thought were made by Federal. Because when I flipped the bowl or the casserole or the mug over, it had an F and a shield. But I also discovered that, well, Federal made an awful lot of milk glass or opal ware, they also sold what was called blanks to decorator companies. And so I live in Canada, and what I have learned over the years is that in particular, there was a company outside of Toronto that did a lot of decorating of Federal blanks and other Fire-King and a few other blanks too, and they were called Cutler. C U T L E R. So they, like, printed on Federal blanks. And that's kind of the main reason why the Federal glass that's found in Canada, it's a lot of different patterns. I mean, there is some overlap, but there's quite a lot of patterns that are more commonly found in Canada than in the States.
Bex Scott: [00:05:19] Interesting. I am already learning things from you because I had no idea. I had heard of Cutler and I'd heard of Federal Glass, but that is very cool.
Ruth: [00:05:29] Yeah, I mean Cutler, they bought blanks from other companies and they did a lot of glassware. But basically their thing was they decorated glassware. You know, they painted onto items made by other companies. So there's a lot of Federal Glass in Canada that is tourist ware, you know, mugs with city, city and town names on them and festivals and hockey teams and businesses and things like that. And of course, it exists in the States also, and Federal in the states was also making decorated milk glass and other glass items. But it explains why some patterns show up in Canada in way larger quantities. There was a gas company in Quebec, I believe it was, that gave away the circus bowls. That's a pattern that a lot of Federal collectors, or you've probably seen it too, it has like red, orange, green, blue pattern around the edge of various circus animals and circus carts and things. Well, that was a giveaway from a gas station in Quebec.
Bex Scott: [00:06:41] No way.
Ruth: [00:06:43] Yes way.
Bex Scott: [00:06:44] I would love to get that from a gas station. Why can't we get that from gas stations now?
Ruth: [00:06:48] I know. When I could, when I could afford gas in the 80s, it was Petro Can. And all we got was those ugly glasses that said every garage sale you ever go to in Canada. But this was an earlier time because I think Federal Glass was out of business by 1980, for sure. I've seen a whole bunch of different sources. Some say 77, some say 79, whatever. By 1980, they were gone. So a lot of this stuff was given away in the 60s and 70s. But that's why there's so many circus bowls in Canada, in particular in Ontario and Quebec. And maybe the company was in Ontario as well, but definitely found way more in the eastern half of Canada than the western half of Canada.
Bex Scott: [00:07:31] So has that made the circus bowls more popular in the States for collectors?
Ruth: [00:07:37] Yeah, yeah, that does do that because they're harder to find. And isn't that what always happens with collectors is the sought-after is the harder to find? Is that just the way we are as people? Is that just...
Bex Scott: [00:07:54] Yeah. We always want what we can't have.
Ruth: [00:07:56] Exactly, exactly. So it was like the circus bowls. And then there was also the dots. There's way more of them that show up. And that's in particular one of my favorite patterns, because along the way, as I was looking for Pyrex, I found a brown dot Federal mug that I thought was kind of cute. So I brought it home and started looking at how many colors does that come in? And I went, well, I'm going to see what I can find. And eight years later, 27 mugs later, I'm still finding new ones.
Bex Scott: [00:08:35] That was going to be my next question. How many different dot colors does it come in?
Ruth: [00:08:40] Oh boy. Well, yeah. First of all, there's two dot variations. There's one where all the dots are the same size, basically, and another where there's two sizes of dots. And then the shape of the mug, there's three variations. So the colors, I think basically it's about 6 or 8 per shape. And then on the two size dots I've only ever been able to find or hear of about 6. We have on the Facebook group, the Federal Facebook group that I belong to, which Bex is going to link in the podcast.
Bex Scott: [00:09:23] Yes. And they finally just accepted me. They actually accepted me really fast. So now I can drool over all of the beautiful photos.
Ruth: [00:09:30] And it's, it's, there are some books out there on Federal, but not really that concentrate on the milk glass side of it. They're more the depression glass and the pressed glass type of stuff. So in that Facebook group, there's a lot of albums in there which a lot of Canadian and American collectors have contributed to, to help with that body of knowledge and help us figure out what was Cutler. And people have actually found some Cutler catalogs as well. But to help us figure out what was the actual pattern names, because there is no official websites or books, a lot of Federal patterns have nicknames, and there's multiple nicknames for a lot of the patterns. And then we find a catalog page and realize the name is actually not at all what anyone has ever called it.
Bex Scott: [00:10:22] Mm. Yeah. Kind of like Pyrex with some of the strange nicknames that the bowls get out there.
Ruth: [00:10:29] Yeah, yeah. Because there was no real company information. And so people make things up, like for example, for Federal there's a - oh, there's also a dot pattern that I didn't even talk about, which most people refer to as atomic, where it's a dot with like a little kind of swirl circle around it. I mean, one, no company in the 50s or 60s or 70s - this is just one of my pet peeves - ever named anything atomic. That name is retroactive. But that aside, that pattern name is actually called Bolero. And there's catalog proof in the Federal group for anyone who wants to argue that one. Printed proof. But the dots, I don't think, ever really had a name that we found so far because they were mostly Cutler. Some were released in the States. But that explains why on the dot bowls there's five different sizes, and Federal bowls are measured, similar to how Pyrex bowls are, across the top in inches for the people who don't like to talk the Pyrex models of 401 or 402 or whatever. Some people think of them in regards to how many inches they are. But Federal there's no molds, i.e. size numbers on them. So they're always called 5 inch, 6 inch, 7, 8, 9 inch, etc. so there's basically five sizes for the regular mixing bowls. There's no Cinderella bowls, there's no space savers, there's no divideds, but there is covered casseroles. There is a few baking dishes. But anyhow, sorry, where was my brain going with that? I was talking about the differences. But that's why people, that's why there are kind of select colors for the dots in 5 to 9 inch, whereas 9 inches super rare has only been found in a couple of colors and a 5 inch in a few more colors, but the 6, 7 and 8, which were a typical 3 bowl set for Federal, came in even more colors.
Ruth: [00:12:44] Like, I think there's 8 or 10 colors for every size there. So when people say, well, what was the official set? What did it look like? Well, there's only a few catalog pages showing some of those variations. And of course, over time sets have been broken up and also a lot of those bowls were sold individually. So people would buy bowls and make up their own sets. You know, they'd pick, you know, a yellow 5 inch and a pink 7 inch and et cetera, et cetera. There are a few standard color combinations that were released, and that's just for one pattern. The dots. Stories like that surround almost every pattern where Blossom Time, for instance, there are certain colors you can find all over the place in Canada, but in the States, they they have a whole other color because they're, Federal made it, the pattern, and here Cutler made the pattern. Or, like some Pyrex stuff, just certain patterns were shipped to certain parts of the country or certain, you know, Kmart bought this product line and Kresge bought this other one and The Bay... I don't think The Bay and Eaton's carried Federal because the quality of Federal is different than Pyrex.
Bex Scott: [00:14:07] Mhm. I was going to say it. How do you explain it? Is it a little less in quality would you say, than Pyrex?
Ruth: [00:14:14] I would say, yeah. I mean that's, that's my personal opinion, just based upon the hundreds of pieces that I've seen over the years. And what happens if you, if your Federal piece accidentally goes into the dishwasher, it deteriorates much quicker than the end of the year is the 70s and 80s Pyrex that, you know, the odd dishwasher trip doesn't usually do too much harm, but Federal, half a dozen dishwasher trips can turn the whole thing into a piece of opal.
Bex Scott: [00:14:48] You'd be left with a lot of opal in your collection.
Ruth: [00:14:50] Yeah, well, and Federal had released a lot of opal. Like, it's very common to find just the plain nesting bowl that's Federal at the thrift or the flea or garage sale or whatever. And it can be hard to tell whether it was released that way or whether it was dishwasher, but if it's shiny, generally it was released that way. So, I mean, I probably find 15 - 20 opal Federal bowls for every one pattern that I find, at least, if not more. And I probably have, okay, I have a few sets of 5 to 9 inch oval and some of the sizes, again, way more common to find. 6, 7 and 8 inch super common, 5 fairly common, the bigger ones a little less common because sometimes it's just what people use and they also scratch on the interior quicker, like the pattern wears off faster. The interior scratches easier. Metal mixers do a real number on them. And while there's, you know, the school of people who are like, well, you know, you got to use, do you use it? You know, always the first question out of non-collectors mouth. Do you use it? And for Federal, yeah. You know, I use it, but I carefully hand wash it and hand use a gentle linen cloth and dry it and put it back on the shelf so it retains its shine because it, 100% agree with you, it does not have the quality and also the baking durability. It doesn't have that Pyrex baking durability. But that doesn't mean, it's still beautiful. It came in a lot of really pretty pretty patterns and some that are very highly sought-after. Are you aware of any of the Federal patterns or anything that's crossed your radar that you thought was?
Bex Scott: [00:16:51] I think the only ones that I really knew of were, I'd heard of the circus, the stripes, there's the dots and then the daisy ones I've seen before.
Ruth: [00:17:02] Right, right, right. The daisy. And then there's also a mushroom set that's quite sought-after.
Bex Scott: [00:17:09] Everybody loves anything mushroom.
Ruth: [00:17:10] Yeah, but it's also, it's primary colored mushrooms.
Bex Scott: [00:17:15] Okay, I like that.
Ruth: [00:17:16] Yeah, yeah. So it has like the yellow, the orange. There's like kind of 5, which I know is more than actually primary colors. But it was like a yellow, orange, red, green and blue that the mushroom set also comes in, and again, a kind of a printed band around the upper edge, which is a fairly common thing for, and it was a, I believe that one was a Cutler one as well. I think that one was a Cutler one as well. There's also some sort of harlequin or diamond type patterns that some people are very fond of. I mean, it's, right now it's the bright colors that appeal to people. There's a pattern that looks like French onion that Federal actually called Bucks County.
Bex Scott: [00:18:05] Hmm. Where does that name come from?
Ruth: [00:18:08] No clue. No clue. You'll rarely find it online under that name unless somebody has a box. But that's what it's called. There's a couple of variations on the kind of gingham tablecloth red and white check look.
Bex Scott: [00:18:25] Oh, I've seen those. Do they come in little cereal bowls?
Ruth: [00:18:28] Yes, they - oh, yeah, that's true. We didn't talk about cereal bowls, which is a shape size that Pyrex didn't really--
Bex Scott: [00:18:37] -- yeah--
Ruth: [00:18:38] -- didn't really do. I mean, Fire-King did a lot of, but, and so when you find them out in the wild with that little, that little cereal bowl, which I think most people nowadays would more call it a snack bowl, but, you know, they're even smaller than 401s. They have often a band of color around them. And they're generally, when you find them, they're either Anchor Hocking/Fire-King, or they are Federal. And just a quick flip to the bottom of the bowl looking for, you know, either one of the Fire-King logos or the Anchor Hocking logo, or the infamous F, large capital F in a shield to let you know which it is. And there's some patterns that kind of look like they might be Fire-King. There's a little bit, you know, there's popular patterns, like the KitchenAid pattern that Hazel-Atlas put out, which is like the turquoise or commonly turquoise, it looks like a coffee pot and a bowl and cups and plates that go around the outer rim of the bowl of Federal did a version of that, which I think that one was the Cutler one, I can't remember. Got to look on the albums on the group, but that I've only found one of, that's a bit harder one to find as well because it's pretty, you know, Hazel-Atlas had the just turquoise. Every single bowl was turquoise. Federal, of course, always does the color variation where each size of bowl is a different color. And then there's also some black and gold patterns. There's some all gold patterns. No clear lids, the lids, the lidded casseroles always have opal lids with a fairly distinctive knob shape.
Bex Scott: [00:20:28] And are the lids as hard to find in Federal as they are in Pyrex now?
Ruth: [00:20:33] Oh, harder. Harder, harder.
Bex Scott: [00:20:35] Oh no. Harder.
Ruth: [00:20:38] Because they didn't release as many, they didn't do, like they only had, there's only a few - I'm trying to think if it's 3 or 4 covered casseroles that came with lids. And those casseroles are, some people even call them bowls because they're round with sort of a shape at the bottom that's very reminiscent of the Fire-King splash proof bowls, but it's only on half of the bowl. It's like the top, it's like they couldn't decide who to flatter with their repetition of that pattern, you know, Pyrex with the roundness or Fire-King with the splash. So it's like a hybrid between the two. That's how, I don't know really if that's what was their intent, but that's how I've always thought of them in the casseroles and then the bakeware. There's kind of an oval dish, a couple of them, but the shapes are much, much more limited, you know, which is also probably contributed to their, they were sold for less money, sold by the lower end department stores, from what I've been able to see from advertisements and such, because they weren't as durable, they scratched up faster, they broke faster. Not quite Glass Bake. Sorry, not a fan.
Bex Scott: [00:21:56] That's okay. I'm not either.
Ruth: [00:21:58] But you know, you look at Glass Bake sideways and it cracks, scratches. Federal at least, you know, sure, maybe it scratches as fast, but at least it's pretty.
Bex Scott: [00:22:15] It is. And speaking of not being a fan, is there a pattern in Federal or a couple patterns that you would say have a resounding, like the fan base isn't there for them, they're maybe considered ugly or not as desirable? Because I know in Pyrex it's usually Old Orchard and Forest Fancy that doesn't have a lot of love. So is there anything, anything in Federal like that?
Ruth: [00:22:44] There's a pattern that's kind of black, a little bit of black with some brown flowers that not too many people are fond of. There's a pattern called Bouquet that comes in a dark teal that people aren't as fond of, because there's quite a bit of it out there. Whereas actually there's one size in that pattern and color that is super desirable because they barely released any. It's weird. It's one of those things where what is it, like, Woodlawn, where there's, like tons of 401 to 403, but the 404 is hard to find. Or was it Snowflake Garland where the 401 to 403 is, you know, it's a middle of the road pattern, but the 404 is super hard to find. So therefore people like it more. There's some of that going on. There's also a gold-only pattern, I think it's called Golden Glory, that was quite common. You've probably seen it. It kind of looks like gold bushes.
Bex Scott: [00:23:52] Oh yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Ruth: [00:23:54] Yeah. And it was actually released twice. So that's why there's so much of it. It was first released in the, oh, I'm trying to remember, in the late 50s. Because I'm fond of it, because it's the pattern I grew up with, it's what my mother had. Right?
Bex Scott: [00:24:11] Yeah. You have the memories associated with it.
Ruth: [00:24:13] Right. But the pattern itself is not very popular. And then it was rereleased again, I think in the 70s when they were trying not to go under. So there's that. The golden brown, there isn't as many brown patterns as there is in Pyrex. I mean, there isn't as many patterns, period. But some of them are just, they're just, they're cute, they're adorable. They come in a lot of variations. And heck, we live in Canada where there's actually more of it. So I, I at first would leave it behind all the time because I was like, no, no, I'm only collecting Pyrex, I'm only collecting Pyrex. And then as you collect more of something and it gets harder to find and you start looking at the other, you start, you know, because there's generally very little monogamy in glass collecting, but you just start looking, you know, at the other things available and the other patterns and bringing them home and kind of going, oh, because I remember saying to some of my friends, no, I don't. I brought this home, isn't it pretty? And they're like, didn't you say you don't collect Federal? That was like, you know, 2000.
Bex Scott: [00:25:27] That sounds familiar with me, too. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:25:32] And before you know it, you're collecting it.
Bex Scott: [00:25:35] Yeah. I've slowed down a lot on the Pyrex collecting lately, and maybe Federal is my next new thing that I have to to collect. So I'm looking at all these bright, cheery photos, and there's one in the vintage Federal Glass Facebook group and it's of these really nice boxes. So does Federal have a box for each dish that's as nice as the Pyrex ones?
Ruth: [00:26:01] I honestly don't know because there just, there hasn't, I mean, there's some boxes out there, especially for those Federal made a lot of snack sets and boxes always survived for the snack sets because they weren't an everyday use type of, I don't know if everybody in the audience is familiar with a snack set. It's kind of like a large, generally oval-ish plate with a little raised and then indented smaller circle where you would put a cup and it was made for party use where you could hold this plate with the cup that was held in place with the little glass lip on the plate with a bit of food, you know, and your tea, and still stand and chat with people and be able to, you know, yeah, lift up your... Yeah there's an adorable pattern that kind of looks like cannabis that's like black, turquoise and pink. I can't remember the exact name of it. A lot of people like that. There's one in the snack sets of Federal one I think that's like a little pastel houses that are cute. I haven't delved into the world of snack sets other than looking at them, because I draw the line at 47 collections.
Bex Scott: [00:27:17] Just 47. 48 is too many. 47 is okay though.
Ruth: [00:27:20] There has to be a line, right? There has to be.
Bex Scott: [00:27:22] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:27:23] There's also because Federal did far more promotional items. They made promotional items with images on them that today we would not find socially acceptable.
Bex Scott: [00:27:39] Mhm. Mhm.
Ruth: [00:27:40] Okay. For certain banks or teams that had images that were derogatory to various, and in particular Indigenous, parts of the population. Some people collect those because they say it, because it's important to acknowledge the mistakes we made in the past. And some people choose to not go there at all. You know, it's a personal, that's a personal choice. But there's, there seems to be quite a bit more of that in Federal than there, you know, I can't, I don't know if I've ever seen any Pyrex that had what we would consider to be an offensive image.
Bex Scott: [00:28:25] I'm trying to think maybe some of the coffee mugs.
Ruth: [00:28:28] Yeah, true. Some of the sayings.
Bex Scott: [00:28:31] Mhm. But nothing out of like the patterned dishes or bowls that I can think of.
Ruth: [00:28:37] Yeah. There was a full set of bowls with a black silhouette of an Indigenous person with feathers in their hair that there's a lot of controversy about. Some people, you know, really think it's great. Other people think it's offensive. That's up to the individual to make their choice. For me, luckily that was released in the States. It doesn't show up here, so I don't have to, I don't have to look at it on the shelf and go is this is too offensive to go in the cart? Because it's important to acknowledge, you know, mistakes made in the past. But I don't particularly want to take pictures of it and glorify it in any way. So there's that. There's a lot of, you know, the office culture mugs. You know, what was acceptable to have on a mug in the 70s is often not acceptable today, thank goodness.
Bex Scott: [00:29:40] Yes.
Ruth: [00:29:41] A lot of, a lot of tourist ware and things like that. And a lot of glassware. There's glass canisters that Federal made that a lot of people misidentify as other companies. They call, the Federal company called them, I was going to say store-and-go, but I don't know if that's quite the right color. They came, they looked very similar to the Atterbury Scroll pattern that, I don't know. Are you familiar with any of this?
Bex Scott: [00:30:13] I don't think so. I'm gonna have to look them up because I really like canisters.
Ruth: [00:30:17] Yeah. So there were glass canisters with glass lids that had a plastic gasket. Not just all around the lip, but across the bottom as well. They came, Federal released them in oh, I think amber, clear, turquoise, and a kind of aurora borealis finish. I hunted for years to find every single color. They came in a bunch of shapes as well. I think an avocado green maybe is, no, I don't think Federals came in avocado green. Part of the problem is they look very, very similar to another company's gloss. So there's a lot of, and they're, none of them are stamped, but there is catalog showing Federal as hey, you know we make this. Because they made a lot of pressed glass in their history.
Bex Scott: [00:31:15] That makes it tricky to identify then. You definitely need to find that catalog to make sure you have the legitimate piece.
Ruth: [00:31:23] It's in the album, it's in the albums on the group. But so I think it's by color that you can tell from what company is what company. I just, I'm just trying to think what colors I have in my personal collection, because I tried hard to just find the Federal ones, which are easier to find here in Canada than other places.
Bex Scott: [00:31:45] Yeah, that's another thing I'm going to add to my list then to search for in the stores. I'm sure it's not easy to find though.
Ruth: [00:31:52] The those those plastic gaskets just didn't hold up like the...
Bex Scott: [00:31:56] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:31:57] Like the beautiful ground glass stoppers and edges on the Belgium canisters. You know, the bubble top, Belgium canisters that we all like or the Takahashi glass canisters with the ground edges. I have a little, I think that's collection 42.
Bex Scott: [00:32:22] I love that. I'm going to go and count my collections now.
Ruth: [00:32:26] I'm joking. And then I'm thinking, wait, am I really?
Bex Scott: [00:32:31] Like I'm not actually.
Ruth: [00:32:35] From Federal I always think, no, I have everything I want and then I find or a friend finds and they go, do you have the 5 inch solid colored bowl in, you know, and they name a color. And I look at my list and I go, dang, I have the other 5 colors. I don't have that one. Yeah. So I now, for Federal, I keep a list of the things that I don't have because it's easier than keeping a list of the things I do have.
Bex Scott: [00:33:07] Mhm. That's a smart way to do it.
Ruth: [00:33:09] Yeah. Because recently, fairly recently I found a 9 inch dot nesting bowl in turquoise. If it was in the Pyrex world it would almost be called rare. Definitely hard to find. And there's, there hasn't been a lot of them. And that's one that I actually, someone in Alberta had found it and I actually, yeah, coughed up and had to make that one mine.
Bex Scott: [00:33:41] Yeah you invested in it.
Ruth: [00:33:43] I invested. Yeah. That's the right way up. I really wanted it because I had the 5, 6, 7 and 8 in that color. So it just it had to be mine. But the vast majority of the Federal pieces I have are, I'd say 95% of them are from Canada, and 85% of them I found, I found locally or, you know, friends found locally because I have a lot of friends that collect locally. And what do we do? We find for each other and we trade. Right?
Bex Scott: [00:34:19] That's the fun part of it. Making friends and finding things for each other and buying and trading. And that's what makes this whole addiction or hobby or however you want to explain it or justify it, that's what makes it fun.
Ruth: [00:34:37] Serotonin is important.
Bex Scott: [00:34:39] Yeah. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:34:41] Definitely. It's almost more fun to find something that someone else has been looking for.
Bex Scott: [00:34:48] Exactly. Yeah. You can score their holy grail.
Ruth: [00:34:53] Yeah, yeah. Speaking of holy grails, beside the 9 inch turquoise that I was so happy to add to my collection, I actually found the batter bowl, a dot, red dot batter bowl. The white ones are a little bit more common for Federal, but I found a dot batter bowl at the thrift store.
Bex Scott: [00:35:12] Oh wow.
Ruth: [00:35:13] Last year or the year before? It was two years ago. Yeah, definitely two years ago, because I happened to be at a whole opposite end of the city than I normally am for an appointment and went, oh man, I have, I'm on my lunch still - wink wink - and I have time to... That's okay. I'm retired now, it doesn't matter. I was rushing back to the, rushing back to work and went, oh man, I'm driving right by this thrift store I never get to. Quickly swung in, raced up and down a few aisles and there it was for 4.99.
Bex Scott: [00:35:50] Oh my gosh.
Ruth: [00:35:51] And I went, the thrift gods were looking out today.
Bex Scott: [00:35:54] The rays of sunshine came down into the store. It was right there. And they were singing. And yeah, I can see it.
Ruth: [00:36:03] Angels sing.
Bex Scott: [00:36:05] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:36:09] That's the feeling when you find something you've been looking for on the thrift store shelf.
Bex Scott: [00:36:15] Yeah. You start to float and everything is just perfect. That's exactly how I feel.
Ruth: [00:36:21] You hug it to yourself.
Bex Scott: [00:36:23] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:36:26] Do you have a cart? You put it in the cart, you put your coat over it.
Bex Scott: [00:36:29] Yes. Yeah. Nobody else can see that because they will try and steal it.
Ruth: [00:36:35] Sadly, yes. Absolutely. And it doesn't matter how badly you have to go to the washroom, you do not leave your cart outside of the washroom with the precious item in it.
Bex Scott: [00:36:46] Well, on that cheerful note. I have learned a ton today about Federal Glass, and I think I'm going to have to have you back for another episode to teach me more about Federal and all of these other 47 collections that you have. But thank you so much for giving me all your knowledge today. I know it's just the tip of the iceberg, but I have to make sure that everybody joins that vintage Federal Glass group. We'll put that in the show notes, and then make sure you follow Ruth at Periwinkle Collectibles on Instagram as well.
Ruth: [00:37:23] Thanks, Bex. It's been a pleasure.
Bex Scott: [00:37:25] Thanks so much for joining me, Ruth.
