Monday, December 23, 2013

The Casually Ignored Casual Elegance Line by Corning

So in my quest to document patterns on Corningware, I seem to have forgotten to include some of the various "shapes" of Corningware.   I have mentioned Corningware "Round" and Buffet Servers which are both of the B-Series.  I have expounded upon both French White (F-Series) and French White II (?-Series).  I have even eluded to French White's predecessor, the Designer Casserole (DC-Series).  But I seem to have left out a very important, yet very late to the party, shape produced by Corning in the mid 90's, 1994 to be exact.  The Casual Elegance Line....

They are shaped similar to French White II, in that they have flared rims and the glass lids are decidedly different than any previous lid produced by Corning, as they fit down inside the "flare", just like the French White II lids.  (please note, that the handles of the Casual Elegance lids are different than the French White II lids.)


Unlike French White II, however, the rims of the Casual Elegance Line have embossed designs on them.  I know of three different designs in this product line...  Though at least one of the "books" specifically states that there was only one design in this shape.

White Flora 
(which seems to be the most prevalent)


Calypso
(This is the same pattern that was later released on Suprema dinnerware as "Lucerne")


Vineyard 
(of which I have only seen a Broil and Bake Tray)



The casseroles are embossed on the bottom, rather poorly I might add, with an L-Series.

I currently am in possession of an L-21 and an L-32 (My mom has the H-15 platter in Vineyard), but there is also an oblong open roasters (L-13 & L-15)

as well as various other Round and Oval pieces such as L-20, L-22 & L-23 (Round) and the L-30 & L-31 (Oval).  I currently have no other information on what volume measurements these pieces have.

Plastic covers for storage were also available and imprinted with "Casual Elegance".  Unlike the glass cover, the plastic storage cover encompasses the whole of the piece, including the rim. (on French White II pieces the plastic covers sit down inside the flared rim, like the glass lids do)

The Broil and Bake Platters are embossed with an H-Series instead of "L", my assumption is because the L-15 was already used on the Open Roaster.

Both Calypso & White Flora are oval in shape (H-14 & H-16)....


 (Both of the above pictures were "Borrowed" from eBay)

but Vineyard is Oblong (H-15)......


Hopefully this help shed some light on a somewhat obscure and late released Corningware Product line.  To make matters more confusing, I am pretty sure that I have seen these in stoneware just like French White and French White II.  So check the bottoms for firing rings to make sure you are not getting a hunk of stoneware!

Where is your Corningware??
~~

13 comments:

  1. I found a White Flora marked L32 a while back and bought it for 5 dollars. I think it is quite beautiful, but am wondering what to so with it? Any ideas from anybody?

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  2. I have the white flora in the oblong roaster, small and large oval and small and large round; wedding presents in December 1996. (20 years ago!) Still use them several times a month. From memory the large held 2.1 litre, the small maybe 1.8 litre? Useful in the oven for gratin, shepherd's pie, lasagne etc.

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  3. If a piece of casual elegance is clearly NOT stoneware, is it pyroceram and can it be used on a stove top?

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    1. Yes.. it's a little cumbersome, like using French White on the stove, but it IS safe for stove top use.

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    2. Hey Shane great info. Now here is a curve ball, I have the White Flora patter round and on the bottom outer edge reads "L-22 MAD IN USA 10" and apposing side reads " NO STOVE TOP OR BROILER" and is clearly made of pyroceram. But no Corning anywhere on the piece. Also have the oval H-14 and embossed on base is the normal "CORNING H-14" 36cm MADE IN USA OVEN & BROILER MICROWAVE FREEZER" clearly pyroceram. As well as the 1Qt-1L Round marked under lip of rim "CORNINGWARE ® 08" opposite side "MADE IN USA 1QT-1L" now this one is the normal vision style round with vertical ribs around base and extended rim (like you mentioned you had seen) clearly not clear and made of pyroceram (white) and has a lid made of ceramic with a label on the underside that read "STONEWARE MADE IN CHINA IMPORTED FOR CORNINGWARE®".... WHEW All that in one breath! Not skeered to use any of them anywhere as I know what I'm looking at and would tell anyone not sure of their product to error on the side of caution for safety reasons! Anyways thanks again!

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  4. I have the large oval Casual Elegance casserole dish (L-62) in the White Flora Pattern. On the bottom, "MADE IN USA" is stamped on one side and "NO STOVETOP OR BROILER" is stamped on the other side. I also have a large round casserole dish (L-22) in the same White Flora pattern - but on the bottom, it's stamped "OVEN - BROILER - MICROWAVE - FREEZER". As far as I can tell, both are pyroceram. (They are definitely not stoneware.) Before they started making stoneware, did Corning transition to making some pyroceram pieces in the Casual Elegance line that were not intended for stovetop use?

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    1. Technically, the shape of Casual Elegance makes stovetop use difficult.. this also holds true for French White items,. So it's possible Corning started marking them as not for stovetop use... The no broiler may also have to so with the shape but as far as I am aware, they were only made of Pyroceram or Stoneware. Interesting.

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  5. Shane,
    Thank you. I found an L21 in a thrift store and had never seen an embossed design on corning. I used various search terms on your site and many others and could find nothing. The "L" was very faint and I used "A".Finally got a magnifying glass to find more clues. Now I can relax:). Merry Christmas.

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  6. So fascinating! Super helpful article, thank you! So far I have found the oval bowls and raised roasters in a see through cobalt blue as well as the white. It took me forever to figure out what they were. Today I found the round bowl (L-22) in cobalt blue with a new pattern not identified in your post - a small flourish or swirl that repeats all around the edge. I was hoping to find what on earth it was called. No luck so far, although I did find one other photo of it elsewhere online! Is there some way to send you a photo, that perhaps you may want to update this post?

    Suuuper appreciate you writing about this series though. There is so little info on it elsewhere.

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    1. The Cobalt, Spring Green and Amethyst colors are actually Pyrex, so please do not attempt to use them on the stove top. That particular line from Pyrex was also available in other patterns besides the 2 that are found in Corning Ware.

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  7. I see this original post is several years old, but was happy to see you still respond to comments. I have a Casual Elegance L-32 10, oval in Calypso with a plastic lid, glass lid, and a trivet. I received it as a wedding shower gift in 1996 and it is one of my favorite pieces in my kitchen. Mostly because it is quite large (2.25 quarts) so it works nicely for baking and serving a big dish of Thanksgiving mashed potatoes It travels beautifully, and the best part is that the glass lid AND the trivet nest neatly under the plastic lid for compact storage. Do you know if any of the other pieces came with a trivet? I know some of the smaller pieces also don't allow for the glass lid to nest inside the dish because they are too shallow. The nesting is a great feature of the larger one. I wish they made one like the L32 in a rectangle. I would definitely buy it. Thanks for your article!

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  8. Hi Shane, I'm so glad I've come across this site. I'm from Australia and received 4 of these pieces (White Flora range) as a wedding gift back in May 1995. I mostly use them for serving and was thinking of donating them until now. I have 2 Oblong with the lids L-13 and L-15, an oval dish with a glass lid and cover L-31, and an Oval platter H-14 (36cm). All of these are above in your pictures. All made in the USA. The more recent Corningware in our Australian stores are made of Stoneware and made in China. I guess they don't make things like they used to. Thanks to you I'll now be keeping mine. Thanks for your informative article!

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