Thursday, June 6, 2013

About Town With Corningware - Perpetuated Pattern Paradox

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, the Pennsylvania Dutch Tole Painting theme (Country Festival) is constantly confused with the "Friendship" pattern.  I find this perplexing.  Maybe they think the blue birds are friends or something...

I see it on eBay ALL the time and even on etsy.  The only conclusion I can possibly draw from this perturbation is that one person misnamed it on eBay at some point in the past.  Being that most Corningware on eBay has been picked up at garage sales and such, most people don't know the actual pattern names. (I still have trouble with some of them... Like "Evening Song" and "Laurelwood")  It doesn't help that Corning never marked their pieces with design names either.  Oye!

The names were only printed on the boxes... No box, and it's a mystery.  Thus, as do I, a prospective seller will peruse eBay to research a pattern name and find the wrong information on a previously listed item. Not knowing it's wrong, the new seller propagates the misinformation on their own listing for the next person who is doing research on eBay to find and the vicious cycle continues..... (Thus why I started this blog... To get the information out there for peopleOK, and to talk about how wonderful Corningware is.)

So without further adieu.  I present this pair of patterns with their proper prenomen.

This is Country Festival (as seen in Tuesday's post) from the mid-70's


Here is the box it use to come in...  :)


True, it's a black and white drawing... But it's evident that it's the two birds with a tulip in between.....



This is Friendship.......

Friendship
(1996-1997)


And here is it's much more colorful box...... (the packaging of the 90's was a lot fancier than the 70's)


(and the proof is in the packaging)

What puzzles me most, is that they look so different, how did they get confused in the first place?  The two designs aren't even from the same decade... 20 years stands between them.  It's 70's vs. 90's.  It's jewel tones vs. pastels.  It's birds and tulips vs. Alstroemeria.  Ah HA!  Gottchya on that one didn't I?

Yes, it's true; Friendship isn't a tulip...  (Though I will admit that it kinda-maybe-sorta looks like a tulip)  I'm pretty sure, though not completely, that it's a "Lily of the Inca" AKA: Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria); which just happens to be the flower of "Friendship".

See what I mean?

Update:  After this posting, Patricia brought up the fact that it looks like Freesia.....

I did a little more research through the "Language of Flowers" book I have. (a reprint from the Victorian era when these secret messages through bouquets of flowers were all the rage) and Freesia stands, not just for Friendship, but "Lasting Friendship".  This to me is even more fitting.

You decide...  Is it Peruvian Lily or Freesia...?  Either way, it's not a tulip.. :)

So hopefully this will help clear up all the puzzlement out there in regards to which pattern is which.  I know I sure could have used this type of publication about 6 years ago.  I guess it's better late than never, right?

Where is your Corningware??
~~

5 comments:

  1. You have educated me in many areas, today it is with flowers, I always thought that was freesia.

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  2. You know what Patricia, you may be right... I went and looked through the flower book and it does look strikingly like Freesia as well. And wouldn't you know it... Freesia stands for "Lasting Friendship". If you don;t mind, I would like to add that possibility to this post with an update. :)

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  3. I think they confuse it with the pyrex friendship pattern, not the corningware pattern. :)

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  4. Very true. I was not really into Pyrex until fairly recently, (within the last couple months) and saw the red birds on the Friendship Pyrex pattern. That proverbial light bulb went off above my head as I finally realized where the confusion is actually stemming from. I think Pyrex Friendship has been around longer than the Corningware Country Festival as well.

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  5. Shane that is correct. The confusion stems from the Pyrex friendship which bears a closer resemblance. Yes we see this all the time and I try to educate as many as will be receptive to the correction (more often than not they are). Just yesterday I seen a post with regular Pyrex mixing bowls listed as Cinderella bowls.Anyways you are absolutely correct on how this misinformation gets around the web.Keep up the informative posts!

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