Fire-King, A Legend In The Home Based Antique Business

By Michael Jarrett

If you are an antique lover as I am you have probably heard the name Fire-King. Although I had a home based antique business at the time, when I first heard that name mentioned I associated it with safes and fire extinguishers as I'm sure most people do. This article is not about fire safety equipment but instead will focus on Fire-King glassware and my obsession with collecting these items.

First off let's start with a little bit of history about Fire-King. Anchor Hocking, a company that was formed in 1937, is responsible for bringing this now famous line of glassware to the public somewhere around 1940. They designed one of the first 'oven proof' lines of dinnerware that could go from the oven to the table and into the refrigerator for storage.

They made the glassware available for purchase at grocery stores and similar outlets, but it was often found in sacks of flour as a marketing promotion and even given away at filling stations. Their method of distributing this product plus the unique and attractive designs they offered made Fire-King dinnerware Anchor Hockings' most successful product.

Most of what they produced was cookware and dinnerware but they also made items such as ash trays and vases and even some souvenir pieces. The wide variety of bold colors and unique painted on designs are what sparked my interest in Fire-King and also led to my obsession with collecting every piece I could get my hands on.

The glassware that was produced from the 1940's to the 1960's is some of the most popular and is what most of my collection consists of. I have purchased the majority of my items at estate auctions, which can be a very good source of inexpensive antiques if you have a home based resale business.

One of my favorite designs is the diamond pattern, which I have an eleven piece collection of mugs and bowls. Another favorite is the wheat pattern, which is on a cookware collection I have that still gets used on a daily basis. That sure says something about the durability of these pieces of history!

I could go on for several pages about different pieces in my collection, which by the way used to be around 350 pieces but is now down to around 100 pieces. (Hey, every so often I have to sell some of it, after all I am in the antique business!) But that number is going to rise again as now I am going to start adding Jadeite to my collection.

Jadeite is probably the most popular and certainly the most expensive of the Fire-King products that are collected today. Even though Anchor Hocking was not the first to produce the milky green color known as Jadeite, they were the ones who made it well known and sought after with their line of Fire-King Jadeite dinnerware.

In the last ten years hard core collectors have driven up the price of Jadeite to extreme levels while most Fire-King products can still be found at very reasonable prices. Hopefully this entrepreneur will find a bargain on the Jadeite I'm looking for.

If you have a home based antique business Fire-King will make a nice addition to your inventory and in my experience is a good profit maker. If you are a collector I wish you luck in your search for this famous glassware but please save some of the good stuff for me!