Tag Archives: collectibles

School Snack Picture: Family Collectibles Identified

After School Peanut Butter Cookies

After school snack of peanut butter cookies and milk. Harriette Kaser’s china, vintage Daffy Duck glass and Grandma Vera Anderson’s apron.

I used this  picture with family collectibles in my post about peanut butter cookies. Here’s the background.

Mother’s China

The cookies sit on a china saucer that is all I have of the set of china that my parents (Harriette and Paul Kaser) used for many years.The bottom of the piece has two logos–one is a brand featuring the letters H C and L combined into a pattern. The other is a seashell (although it doesn’t look like a natuilus.  The words , letters and numbers “Eggshell Nautilus, U.S. A. L 39 N 5” also are printed on the bottom.

I learned from RobinsNest.com, that the company is Homer Laughlin, and the company source told me that company was founded by two brothers in East Liverpool Ohio, in 1871.  Later, the company was to build more factories across the river in Newell West Virginia, and that is where my mother’s china would have been made. Eventurally the company was purchased by the Wells family, who still run the business.

There were many designs called Eggshell Nautilus, and this pattern, which does not show up for sale much on line is called Ardmore. From the E-How website, I learned keys to the letters and numbers found on the bottom of the piece. I learned it was made in December 1939 (So probably purchased in 1940 when I was one year old.) Although pretty, these pieces qualify more as family collectibles than fine antiques.

The Homer Laughlin Company now now concentrates on Fiesta Dinnerware.  The same company that did the delicately painted China of my mother’s pattern and hundreds others, also started the now better-known Fiesta Ware in 1935.

Grandma Vera Anderson’s Apron

This apron, used here as a kind of tablecloth for the after school snack, was made from flour-sack material. It has made it through three generations of use, and my grand daughter now wears it when she visits me to cook–a fourth generation of wear.  I wrote about it, and other aprons here. Flour sack aprons and garments are definitely family collectibles–few survive because they were USED.

The Daffy Duck Glass

When I was young we had a cupboard full of these juice glasses.  Jelly and cheese spreads came packaged in these glass jars with pry-off metal lids.  An environmentally sensitive packaging gimmick before anybody was particularly paying attention to the environment, enhanced with the kid-catching cartoon figures. So that makes my Daffy Duck glass one of the more valuable family collectible as each year passes.

In fact, for a while you could still get your pimento or pineapple (oh my gosh, I had forgotten about pineapple cheese spread!) in a glass jar–but, sadly, without the cartoon characters. I could not find any manufactured in 2016.

UPDATE: I wrote to Kraft’s page on Facebook, and got the following information:

Kraft still makes Jar Cheese in Old English, Pimento, Pineapple available all year round and Roka Blue which is available during the winter holidays only. We suggest trying out our product locator here http://bit.ly/1KAUCMx to see local grocery stores that may have stocked the product within the last 30 days.

That worked for me. So have fun.

You can also find it on line, but CHECK the EXPIRATION DATE.

This has been another in my occasional posts on family heirlooms–in this case family collectibles rather than more valuable antiques.

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