The Rare, Mod Pyrex Pattern Collectors Dream Of Finding At Thrift Stores

Most vintage Pyrex hunters can spot a Butterprint bowl across a thrift store. Far fewer recognize the pale yellow oval Pyrex casserole scattered with tiny charcoal designs, like a watermelon, a fish, a bunch of carrots, and a pepper grinder, which is exactly why it's still findable. Collectors have named it "Mod Kitchen," but Pyrex never even bothered to give it an official name. 

When Corning Glass Works released the 1 ½-quart oval casserole in spring 1958, the box just said "Decorator". But that wasn't the name; it was just a label the company used for dozens of unrelated promotional patterns over the years. According to Corning Museum of Glass' Pyrex Potluck, the dish was featured in a 1958 ad for "New Pyrex Honeymoon-House gifts," listed it as "another wonderful gift idea" at $3.95, complete with a clear lid and a wire serving cradle. Decades later, collectors got tired of the confusion with other "Decorator" pieces and started assigning their own names; they named this piece "Mod Kitchen" after the atomic-era kitchen imagery featured in the pattern.

A 1958 casserole dish with its lid, without chips or scratches, recently sold for $70. These sets consistently sell for between $65 and $80. Mod Kitchen casseroles without their warmers and lids are still valued by Pyrex collectors, selling for around $15 in good condition. Since Pyrex is still the vintage dishware brand you should always snag, it's worth memorizing the patterns of promotional pieces like Mod Kitchen. 

According to Pyrex Potluck, Corning produced roughly 135 gift-set patterns from the mid-1950s through 1983. The company gave these sets a deliberately short sales window timed for the gift-giving seasons of Mother's Day, June weddings, and Christmas.

Whenever companies make short runs of dishware without reissue, and no official name, the value shoots up. Mod Kitchen is one such dish. The most valuable Mod Kitchen pieces have the original box, lid, and cradle, but as this was a gift set, it was easy to lose the pieces. Lidless bases are common, and some Pyrex bloggers report finding them at swap meets for as low as $5. That's a real bargain for Pyrex, considering some promotional Butterprint bowls are $200 to $300 apiece.

On that note, another pattern you should learn about is the never-marketed New Mexico casserole dish, which sells for $2,800 to $6,000, making finding this Pyrex pattern like winning the lottery. The pattern was printed, incidentally, on the same 043 casserole used by Mod Kitchen.

For Mod Kitchen, thrifters should be on the lookout for one important nuance: Corning released another "Decorator" casserole around the same time (circa 1956), also with a band of black designs, but those were tulips. So, from a distance, you might think it's Mod Kitchen, but if the pattern isn't food and utensils, it isn't. (Check out discontinued Pyrex patterns you can only buy secondhand.)