Fire King Finds

As many of you know, I am really into collecting Pyrex these days. But you may not know that I love other types of milk glass as well, especially Fire King. I've actually been collecting Fire King longer than Pyrex, and while Pyrex has taken off in the collecting world of late, Fire King has been more of a steady presence. I don't know exactly why; perhaps it's because Fire King made more "sets" of dishes and items in the same pattern. It encourages those of us who like it to seek out all the pieces of a particular line, rather than to just acquire different patterns of the same item (Pyrex mixing bowls).

And while the mania for Pyrex has resulted in scarcity and high prices in the thrifts, lately I've been able to find some nice Fire King pieces. But, like my Pyrex hoard, I have to limit myself to only certain patterns and items, or I will never have room for it all. Mainly, I collect the hand painted "Peach Blossom" line (pink flowers), jadeite, the Kimberly line (diamond-textured and ombre-colored) and any and all mugs I can find.

The bowls on the left are plain red and the bowl and mug on the right are Kimberly. I happened on a yard sale the other week while I was out on a run and saw the Kimberly bowl. I never ran so fast back home to get my money! The yellow and green mug I have had for a while. I would love to have more, but I am not about to pay online prices for them, so will have to wait for the odd yard sale bargain.

Speaking of mugs, I found these awesome gas station promo mugs. I think it was Amoco that advertised a "tiger in your tank"? Anyway, they are my new favorite coffee mugs, and were only 50 cents each.

I have found a lot of Fire King at rummage sales- something about it must have appealed to church ladies. I found this Wheat pattern tea set recently- 8 saucers, 7 cups (whoops- will have to find a replacement sometime!) two condiment bowls and a cream and sugar set for $4. I have a soft spot for this pattern, because I inherited a matching casserole from my grandmother, but I don't think I have space to keep it. It may go over to my booth... or it may not... ;)

This bowl was hard to photograph, but it is molded in a basketweave pattern. I understand that these were included with a certain brand of cottage cheese as a grocery store giveaway. It was only 25 cents!

This is probably one of my better recent rummage sale finds. This is another one of Fire King's hand painted lines (called "Gay Fad", after the name of the art studio that did the painting) which feature painted fruit. I have found that there are different combinations of fruit out there and these happen to be peach and grapes. Some others have pears and cherries, and oranges and lemons. 

Those of you who collect Pyrex will be interested to know that Fire King also produced refrigerator dishes and made some really neat ones. The peach blossom set that I currently covet is actually two small round dishes on top of a larger oval. These are more traditionally shaped. 

I found the large dish with lid ($2!) on one table and then spied the two smaller dishes way across the room (50 cents each). I turned the place upside down but could not find the lids. Oh well, the hunt goes on!