Advertising

I found my first piece of Pyrex advertising the other day.

The hubs and I ventured to another new-to-us antique store just a few days ago. The store itself was essentially a bust. I immediately got the sense that they were shooting for a 'true antique' aesthetic. Very, very fine china (6 grand for a set of flow blue, any takers?) or hundred year old+ primitives.

In other words, no Pyrex. In fact, the only thing they had that I collect at all was a number of blue Cronin Tulip pieces, the prices of which left me a little agog. My husband commented that at 55 dollars for a blue teapot, my yellow ought to be worth at least 75.

(this idea warrants a winkie-face. I paid a dollar fifty for mine at a GW ;-)

But what we did find were several tubs sitting outside, filled to the gills with old magazines. A dollar apiece. My husband pulled out a number of Life magazines, ranging in age, with Johnny Cash and Charles Manson covers.

I flipped through a number of Good Housekeeping, mostly dating to the 1950's. I settled on 6, hoping that I might luck into some cool advertising. I've had the idea for a while that if I ever found any original Pyrex ads, I'd put them in some sort of sleeve and put them up on the inside of my cabinet doors where I keep my Pyrex collection.

And, lo and behold, I did.

This is the January 1954 issue, and it's got all the details of the Pyrex/Heinz 57 promotion.

I was especially excited to see this because I just recently bought this very piece. Wrote about it here a while back. And indeed, the color does match the "soft forest green" of the baked beans can.

The promotion itself was buy 3 cans of Heinz 57 products (Spaghetti, Chili Con Carne, Oven-baked beans, or Macaroni with cheese sauce) and this dish could be yours for 79 cents (regular retail 1.50).

Very cool!

Out of the 6 Good Housekeeping issues I bought, 3 have some Pyrex advertising. There are also ads for Fire King, Glasbake, Club cookware, a few pictures that feature vacuum coffee makers and a couple of Pyrex pieces in use for recipes. I intend to scan them all and post them. Unfortunately, since I've already found a couple of my photos being used on selling sites without my permission, I am planning to watermark the scans before I post them, so bear with me.