Fire King - Swirl Pattern

Here's another nice Fire King piece I found.  This one is a Swirl pattern mixing bowl in white.  It's the 9 inch, which I think is 2 1/2 quarts. 

Wikipedia says that Fire-King was originally produced in the 1940s for everyday use, rather than display. It was often sold in bags of flour as a promotional item or was given away at gas stations. Fire-King could also be purchased at local grocery and hardware stores.

More Specifically (from K & M Antiques): Fire-King was produced by the Anchor Hocking Glass Corp. of Lancaster, Ohio during the years from 1940 until 1976. 

The swirl pattern came in a number of colors including jadite, azurite, pink, ivory & white.


I found a great post for identifying Fire King bottom stamps on Cobblestone Mountain.  Here's a little tidbit from their page:

As a general rule, the less embossing on the bottom of a mug, the older it is – however one common exception is that “Fire-King Glass” is older than “Fire-King Ware” (one alphabetic character difference!)  Also, though not specified in any of the descriptions below, the mugs made after about 1950 will usually have a 2-digit mold number embossed on bottom as well.  These mold numbers carry virtually no collector value or meaning.

According to the post, my bowl was made in the 1950's.  That was a good decade.  I was made then, too.  :-)  My bowl has Made in USA under the WARE, but you can't see it in the photo above.  Those letters are starting to wear off and my photo went dark down low. 

Also, my bowl does NOT have Anchor Hocking on it.  I read somewhere in my research that even though Anchor Hocking made all the Fire King line, they preferred to highlight Fire King rather than Anchor Hocking on the whole line of dishware.

It's very easy to confuse the Fire King Swirl Pattern with the Anchor Hocking Shell pattern.  There's a great post about how to tell the difference on Jadite Kate. The shell pattern was NOT part of the Fire King line, so Anchor Hocking is the main mark on the bottom stamp for it.  The shell pattern was made in both jade and white.   Be sure to check out her post for a few more tips.   

I found this on DepressionGlass.net - The Fire-King Swirl pattern was made by Anchor Hocking from 1949 to 1962 in Azur-ite, Jade-ite, Anchorwhite, Ivory, Rose-ite, and Pink. The ivory and anchorwhite also came trimmed with 22K gold (Golden Anniversary and 22K Anchorwhite). The dishes may be trimmed around the outside with Lustre (peachy bronze color), or pastels (green, pink, blue, yellow), or red (Sunrise). Plates, cups and bowls were often hand-painted by various artists of the time, or had decals applied. Fire-King's Swirl pattern has raised swirls around the insides or outsides of the pieces. The edges are smooth, not scalloped.

Another tidbit - The Shell pattern was produced later than the Swirl pattern. 
Shell - 1965-1976
Jadite Kate says Swirl was made from 1949 to 1951.  Depression Glass Net said 1949 to 1962.  Hmmm.  I actually found a good many differences of opinion on a number of Fire King points.  My friend and boothmate in the White Booth, Nicole, has a book which may hold the answer.  Yoo-hoo!  Nicole!!!!!!!!!???????

By the way, Jadite Kate is a blogger who obviously loves Jade-ite dishes.  I plan to explore her blog further.  Here's a quick post on her retro kitchen.