What's Up With Wheat? - Blue Wheat Corning Ware Prototypes?

The story of Corning Ware's Wheat pattern has become fairly common knowledge.   The gist of the story is that, in 1958, Corning passed on the Wheat design because it wasn't ready to go to production.  Instead they opted for the Cornflower that we all know and love today.  There is a slightly different version that claims that a mistake was made in the initial run, and that the Wheat pattern was the intended pattern but the Cornflower was applied by mistake... and it stuck.

Regardless of its questional beginnings, the Wheat pattern was revisited later and released (about 1962) under the W-series designation that ran up until about 1970 or 71.  After 1971, Corning Ware pieces were modified, became the A-series (there are no A-series Wheat pieces) and the Wheat pattern was dropped.

To date, I have found that nearly every piece of P-series Cornflower (minus a few of the later percolators) was also available in the Wheat pattern (as a W-series piece).  This is a very different scenario when compared to the other early patterns like Trefoil; which only had 3 percolators, 3 saucepans and a couple of skillets. 

I think the time has come to propose a new scenario here... You see, the whole thing doesn't make any sense... At least, not any more.

HOW can someone simply load the wrong pattern into the machine?  It's a silk screened enamel.  You would not only have to load the wrong pattern into the silk screening machine but the wrong enamel color as well... and let's face it... Blue and Brown look NOTHING alike, even to someone who is color blind.

Even if that really did happen back in 1958... WHY would Corning wait for another 4 years (1962) to revisit the Wheat pattern?   That makes absolutely NO sense either; especially since the Trefoil pattern was released in 1960.   The whole thing seems completely nonsensical to me.

What really got me thinking about how weird the whole "accepted story" sounded was when I got my hands on this piece.    

It's embossed on the bottom in the same fashion of the 1958-1959 first generation cornflower pieces....

This got me to wondering if maybe it was a prototype for the "Wheat that never was"....

Then I got my grubby mitts on this one as well.....  (the P-83-C lid is just a tiny bit too small)

Which seems to be a "prototype" for the P-83-B Menuette skillet that would eventually be released in 1966.. (P-83-B on right)

The handle is attached completely different from what we all know from the piece that actually went to the market place.  It seems a little bit of a shaky attachment if you ask me.  The final design for the P-83-B is much better - but that is beside the point.

This piece is embossed on the bottom as well...  (though not nearly as clearly as the 1 1/2 quart)

Both of these "prototype" Wheat pieces are blue in color -- the SAME blue as Cornflower. Why are they not in golden brown...?  Which brings me to my new theory.

The first two patterns released on Corning Ware products were Cornflower (blue) and Trefoil (black).  Both colors of enamel are very similar.   In fact, if you have a piece of Trefoil that is slightly faded from over cleaning, the design takes on a bluish tinge.

All this has led me to believe that the reason that Wheat was originally passed over, was not so much that the "design" wasn't ready... Obviously is was or it would not have even been printed in Blue.   It had to do with the color.  The golden brown enamel wasn't ready to go to production.  Blue wheat was not part of the vision for the product.   So they went to production with the color they had... and it was blue... which meant Cornflower.  Black is not too far of a stretch from blue, so they were able to get the Trefoil pattern out 2 years later... Even the Holiday pieces from 1960-1963 were printed in blue or black.   Eventually, they found a brown enamel color that they liked for the Wheat and, since it WAS suppose to be the original design, they went ahead and released it.

Incidentally, they DID release a blue Wheat Corning Ware in Britain.  I actually bid on a piece that was on eBay UK a couple years ago (I lost).  I don't remember if it was labeled as Pyrosil Ware or Pyroflam though. It was 2 years ago, after all.

Where is your CorningWare??
~~

Which Came First, The Trefoil or the Variant? - The Trefoil Collection (Pre & Post P-series)

I have posted about the Trefoil pattern before, but I think it's time to break the entire collection out. Not just the standard 1 3/4 quart & 2 1/2 quart Saucepans, Electromatic Skillet and the 3 percolators in the pattern that we are all most familiar with....

I mean the whole kit and kaboodle. 

Meaning the "Standard" Trefoil and all it's variants. (for there are 2)

Made available in 1960 to catch a "higher class" consumer, Trefoil hit the market smack dab in the middle of the Pre P-series era (1958-1961).  Thus, older pieces have the blurry blue ink print found on 2nd generation Corning Ware, which means they were paired with Fin handle lids,

while others are stamped with the standard P-series model # of the 3rd generation, meaning they deserve knob handle lids. (1 3/4 quart is the only "P-series" cookware piece I currently have)

The P-139 and P-136 Stove Top percolators (1963-1965) seem to have only been available in the "standard" pattern, but the Electromatic Percolator (P-13-EP) predates the Stove top models by 3 years. (being available in 1960 along with the Electromatic Skillet)  It is possible that it is available in the variant pattern.

Speaking of Electromatic Skillets, the Trefoil Electromatic Skillet predates the Cornflower model by 1 year.  Trefoil patterned Electromatics were available in 1960 while the Cornflower patterned version was not made available until 1961.  It seems that ALL three variants were available at some point in Electromatic Skillet form.  Since the Electromatic Immersible Warming Tray was not on the market until 1964, it is possible that a Trefoil pattern was never produced since the pattern was discontinued shortly after in 1965.

The "Scroll" variant (right), was only available on the Electromatic Skillet.  (Note: that though the booklet has the "Standard" pattern and the box states "Trefoil" the skillet that came out of it, is a "Scroll" pattern one)

The variant on the left, however, appears to have been around from the very beginning because of this piece...

The 10 inch Skillet with the Pyroceram lid.  (which isn't available in the "standard" pattern)

It has the "Blurry Blue Ink" dating it to 1960-1961, along with the odd sized 1 1/2 quart and a 1 quart size that have been found in this same variant.

That being said, it appears that the only cookware available in the "standard" pattern, was the 1 3/4 quart, 2 1/2 quart, 11 inch Electromatic Skillet and, of course, percolators.

Where is your Corning Ware??
~~

J C Penney Exclusive Design, by Corning - My JCP-Series Collection

I know very little about this pattern, except what I have read off the bottoms of the dishes themselves.  This slightly Scandinavian looking pattern may have an official name like "Needlepoint", "Candlewicking" or "Embroidery".  Your guess is as good as mine.  I usually just refer to it as the "J C Penney" pattern.  The design appears to be printed in what I would call Khaki green (somewhere between avocado green and taupe....  closer to the color of army fatigues than anything else)

Like the "Wheat" pattern, the J C Penney pattern has it's own model designation "JCP", even though it has P-series handle lugs.  Also of note, and what makes the model numbers slightly different from the norm, is that the ending hyphen is missing.   Thus, what would normally be a P-1-B or a W-1-B (in the case of the Wheat pattern), a 1 quart saucepan in the JC Penney pattern is marked as a JCP-1B with no hyphen. 

The only pieces I am currently aware of are the 1 quart (JCP-1B), the 1 1/2 quart (JCP-1 1/2B) and the 22oz Petite dish (JCP-43B)

As you can see from the bottoms, this was a pattern made exclusively for the JC Penney stores sometime before 1972, when the handle lugs were enlarged.  Since it has the proverbial "For Range & Microwave" printed on the bottom, my guess is that it began production in 1970.  It is unclear if these pieces actually graced the store shelves, or if they were only available through the Catalog.

Where is your Corning Ware??
~~

In The Beginning - Corning Ware 1st Generation BPE (Before P# Era - 1958-1959)

So I have been photographing various chunks of my Corning Ware collection over the last couple of months.  This was for a 2 fold reason.   Firstly, I really didn't have anyplace that I could spread it all out and photograph everything all at once and second, well... there is only so much room for a photo on a blog post and I would have to stand back so far to get it all in that you probably would not be able to see much of anything except a bunch of little blue cornflower shaped dots.

Be that as it may, I decided that I was going about this the wrong way.  I should have been organizing my collection by Era and/or generations.  You see, there are several "Generations" of Corning Ware and those generations can be grouped together into Eras.  To make matters even more confusing, some of the patterns within generations can be broken down into "Editions"... Such as the Floral Bouquet pattern.  This is further complicated by the fact that there are separate "series" runs that occur for a short time within a generation that are retired, but then resurface again later...   So lets just start at the beginning...

In the first Era (AKA: Fin Lid Era), which encompasses 1958 - 1961, there were actually 2 generations of Corning Ware.... an embossed bottom generation and a blurry blue ink generation...   but today I am going to concentrate on Generation 1 (numero uno) from 1958 thru 1959.

In the beginning of the beginning there were no P, B, W, N, A, C, S, DC, F, G, U or L model numbers..   You see, Corning was unsure how well their cookware would be received by the American housewife, so they made a limited number of pieces for the initial release in the fall of 1958 to test the waters.....  These would be the 1 quart, 1 1/2 quart and 1 3/4 quart saucepan with fin lids (similar to the Pyrex FlameWare design) along with the 10 inch skillet topped with the infamous pyroceram lid adorn with more cornflowers.  With only 4 pieces, it was pretty easy to keep track of what was what, so no model numbers were really needed at this point. That does not mean that there WEREN'T model numbers.   They existed, but were only found on product order forms, not the dishes themselves.

Corning Ware was such a hot seller that, by Christmas, retailers were screaming for more.  So, in spring of 1959 Corning unveiled 2 additional skillets (9 inch and 7 inch with fin lids), a larger 2 1/2 quart Saucepan and the famed 8 cup & 6 cup pyroceram lipped percolators (which would later be referred to as P-108 and P-106).

All these pieces, percolators aside, have an embossed stamp on the bottom stating either "Corning Ware" with a volume measurement or, in the case of the skillets, width in inches. (7 inch skillet-top, 1 3/4 quart saucepan-bottom)

or simply "Corning Pyroceram" with no other identifying marks.  (bottom of 2 1/2 quart)

There ARE alpha-numeric characters embossed on the pieces as well, as is evident above with the A-19, D 16 and B-34, but these are by no means model numbers... they are glass mold numbers used for quality control purposes.  The model numbers we all know and love would not be applied to pieces until the second Era of Corning Ware in 1962 (3rd Generation) with the the P & W series followed shortly in 1964 by the B-series (and the C-series for Centura coordinated casseroles)

As mentioned before, they existed for ordering purposes, but were not present on dishes or lids.  While the dishes are the same as later, marked pieces, the official fin lid numbers are a little different.   There are only 2 lid sizes and the Pyroceram lid for the 10 inch skillet. 

The 7 inch fin lid is a P-11-C and fits the 1 quart, 1 1/2 quart and 1 3/4 quart saucepans as well as the 7 inch skillet.  The 9 inch fin lid is a P-2 1/2-C  and fits the 2 1/2 quart saucepan and 9 inch skillet.  The pyroceram lid is known as a P-10-C.  The later glass replacement lid was originally released as a P-10-C-1, but after the pyroceram lid was discontinued all together, the model number of the glass lid was changed to P-10-C.


So there you have it....   The 1st Generation of the 1st Era of Corning Ware.

Where is your Corning Ware??
~~

Mid-Centura Modern - My Centura Covered Casserole Collection

From the creative mind of Jerry Wright, the original Centura saucepan collection SCREAMS mid-Century Modern design.

Available in 1 quart, 1 1/2 quart and 2 quart, these saucepans/casseroles were designed to accompany the Centura dinnerware line (originally only available in coupe style, with no rim) and released in the fall of 1962 along with the dinnerware. They have their own special handle (601-H)....  Which is a slightly modified version of what was already being used on the traditional "square" Corningware.

The saucepans themselves are made of the "CorningWare" pyroceram formulation, however, the lids are made of some form of ceramic material that is neither Centura nor Corningware.  Sadly, this line was discontinued in 1967 to make way for "Buffet Server" styled Centura serveware (B-series).

Where is your Centura by Corning??
~~

3 from Pre-"P" - My Black Trefoil Collection

I suppose that it is only fitting that a pattern like Black Trefoil (3) actually came in 3 variations.   Trefoil is sort of a strange pattern though, as it was released in the "Pre" P-series era.  You see, originally (1958-spring 1961), Corningware didn't have model numbers.  During 1958-59 the information was embossed on the bottom center of the dish, but in 1960 Corning began using blue ink to print the dish size in quarts (or inches in the case of skillets) along with "Corning Ware Pyroceram" and "Made in the U.S.A".

Black Trefoil was originally released in 1960...  It's intention was to appeal to the "upper class" that might look down upon the humble little Blue Cornflower.   P-series model numbers weren't introduced until the Fall of 1961, along with the knob handled lids.  Thus, every piece of Black Trefoil produced before Fall 1961 had a Fin lid (like mine), and all pieces produced after (with P-series model number printed in black) had knob handles lids.

Now I am not sure which pattern variant came first or if they all came out at the same time, but the most well known is this one (shown on the 2 1/2 quart below)

which is known to exist in 1 3/4 quart (P-1 3/4-B) and 2 1/2 quart (P-2 1/2-B) Saucepans as well as the Electromatic Skillet (P-12-ES with an P-22-ES dish -- AKA: the SK-10) and several Percolators in both Stove Top (P-136 & P-139) and Electromatic (P-13-EP) versions.  (Please note that the 1st Generation Electromatic Percolators had different model numbers depending on the printed pattern.  The 10 cup Electromatic Percolator in Cornflower is P-23-EP while the Trefoil was P-13-EP.....   Also note that though the Back Trefoil Range Top models are identical in form to the P-116 and P-119, they were assigned different model numbers none the less.)

I have succeeded in getting my hands on the "Scroll" variant, but I have only seen this one on the Electromatic Skillet (SK-10) and not on ANY other sized piece.

Next to my "Standard" Trefoil 1 3/4 quart (cause it's printed in blue on the bottom) is my most recently acquired Black Trefoil variant...

Up until this piece, I had only seen the SK-10 skillet with this design... But even more surprising is the size of the piece.....

Yes, it really is a "1 1/2 quart" and not the more standard and well known 1 3/4 quart seen in the Main Pattern...   Thus, this one takes a Fin lid as well, like all the others.  Since this is the only piece I have seen, I cannot say as to whether the design carried over into the model number era beyond being applied to the Electromatic Skillet. 

I do not believe there is a Fin lid for the Electromatic Skillet as they were released in the fall of 1961, in the post Fin Handle Lid era... 

Where is your Corning Ware??
~~

Give Me an N!! Give Me an S!! What Does That Spell? Confusion - 70's Rangetoppers vs 80's Rangetop Saucepans

I found yet another find the other day and decided that I should do an exposé to clear up any possible misconceptions out there in Corningware-Land.  It has to do with the saucepans; more specifically, the round saucepans with handles that are shaped like the Visions saucepans.

There are 2 types of round Corningware saucepans.

Rangetoppers, (all one word) with aluminum clad bottoms, and regular ones that do not (have an aluminum clad bottom that is) called RangeTop (minus the "pers")

You would think that it would be fairly straight forward, but it's not.  The problem is that not all Rangetoppers have a "Clad" bottom.  (sigh)   My assumption is that the exposed aluminum was blackening after being run through the dishwasher as well as rubbing off when abraded by certain cleaning methods.  Thus, Corning's answer was to "embed" the aluminum in the bottom.  These are fairly rare, as I think this was shortly before the line was discontinued, but they ARE out there.  There is no way to differentiate these pieces from regular saucepans by looking at the bottom, cause the white pyroceram conceals the aluminum.

This is my 1 1/2 quart (N-1 1/2-B) with the exposed aluminum bottom. Which is what I made the Tomato & Bechamel sauces in awhile back.

This is my recent find, a 2 1/2 quart Rangetopper (N-2 1/2-B) with the aluminum embedded under the pyroceram glass.

This is where knowing your codes comes in handy.  ALL Rangetoppers are marked under the handle with an "N-standard #-B".  They will also say "Not for Microwave Use", regardless of what the bottom looks like.  True, microwave browners contain "metal" as well, but Tin Oxide (tin rust) reacts a little different in the microwave than raw Aluminum does.

The Rangetop Saucepans, on the other hand, were produced AFTER the Metric switch over.  These are designated with an "S-decimal #-B" because they are in Liters and not in the Standard Quart measurements that had been used previously.

This is my mothers S-1.5-B in Shadow Iris.  Meaning it is a regular non-Aluminum containing saucepan that is 1.5 liters as opposed to 1 1/2 quarts.

The model numbers for these pans are found in the same location as those of the Visions line.  Being, embossed on the top of the handle.

Now I would say that the "S" stands for "saucepan", and that may be true, since V was used for Visions, F was used for French White and W was used for the Wheat pattern.  That would not explain why an "N" was chosen for the Rangetoppers though.  I assume that "R" was out of the question because it looks too similar to a "P" and "A" for aluminum was already taken by the post-1972 main product line.  Why not "T"?  or RT, since Corning chose K & KA for their Flat Ground bottom Cookmate line.  Then again, K & KA are not derived from "Cookmate" either...  So who knows how they came up with this stuff.
 
Oh, incidentally, though I do not have one, I have seen them in the thrift stores on occasion, though they are usually in a pattern that I do not collect like Country Cornflower or Spice of Life.  The S-2.5-B or 2.5 liter saucepan has a lug handle opposite the long handle so you can move the saucepan with both hands.

(Photo Courtesy of eBay)

I should clarify that this information regarding S & N model numbers has nothing to do with the Menu-ettes; being the 1 pint (P-81-B), 2 1/2 cup with pour spout (P-89-B), & 1 1/2 pint (P-82-B) saucepans as well as the 6 1/2 inch skillet (P-83-B).  The Menu-ettes never switched from their original "P" designation just like the Petite Dishes (P-41 & P-43), even after 1972 when the larger pieces had their model numbers converted to "A".

Gratuitous picture of Rangetopper Saucepans (This is how the instruction materials suggest storing them, instead of placing one pot down inside the other.)

Now, if I could just find the 1 quart (N-1-B) and a 5 quart (N-5-B) and maybe the 10 inch skillet (N-10-B)  The search continues.......

Where is your Corningware??
~~