Vintage Fiesta mixing bowls

 This here is my new baby. A #6 original green Fiesta mixing bowl. An online auction win. And of course the shipping ended up being as much as the bowl itself - which is why I rarely buy online.

One of the reasons I decided to go for it is because of this detail:

Inside rings. Which indicates that this bowl was made between 1936, when they began production, and 1938, when they dropped the rings, smoothed out the inside, and changed the backstamp.

Not the clearest photo, but here's an example. These are both #5 bowls. The red is earlier.

Different backstamps. Red bowl has inside rings.

Call me crazy but I love details like these. There is a similarity here with the earliest Primary Pyrex bowls, a variation that doesn't have a name, but I call the TM REG bowls. These early Pyrex bowls are thicker, have some color variation and aren't numbered on the bottom.

With both the early Fiesta & Pyrex bowls, I think what I like about them the most is that they are actually less perfect than the later bowls. On the early Fiesta bowls, the glaze isn't as even, the Fiesta mark is smaller and plainer. But that's my dream set - to own all 7 bowls with inside rings, inside and outside bowls in turquoise. And I'm not even entirely sure that turquoise bowls are to be found with the inside rings since turquoise did not make it's debut until some time in 1937.

Oh well, a girl can dream can't she?

 I've got a ways to go before I have a whole set. I'm over halfway there if you count my very, very whooped-up tiny yellow number one bowl. Which brings me to a story about what a sucker I am when it comes to Fiesta mixing bowls.

See that little guy to the right? Poor little whooped-up bowlsie. It was a pity purchase, but also, because if I were any more of a sucker, they'd put a wrapper over me and ship me off to the candy store.....

What happened was, I was in a local antique store. This guy here was unpriced. Really, really bad condition. I mean, unspeakably bad. In addition to all the chips, it was absolutely grey, inside and out with utensil marks. Somebody didn't just use this bowl - they used the H. E. Double Hockey Sticks outta this bowl. And they musta been super angry when they when they used the H. E. Double Hockey Sticks out of it, too.

But you get the idea. So I fall for the oldest trick in the book. I inquire a price on this poor, decimated mixing bowl, and I get the whole "Oh, make me an offer".

So what did I say? Why, the first thing that popped in my head (which, if you are in my head, you'd totally know that's never a good idea).

I said "Well, no more than 5 dollars."

5 dollars! You sucka. You lollipop! 5 dollars.....for the worst conditioned thing you've ever seen in your whole life. 5 dollars, why I aughta!

At that moment, if I could have gone back in a time machine, what I would have said was "Well, no more than 50 cents."

But no, the damage was done. And I am the proud owner of a very chippy Fiesta mixing bowl.

He became substantially cuter when I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned on him with Bar Keeper's Friend. That stuff is a lifesaver.

(Get it? Sucker....Lifesaver.)

Yep.

Okay kids, I'm out.

Happy Treasure Hunting!