Description

Double Tough was a heavy duty product line developed by Corning and sold through their brand Pyrex. It originally started out as a commercial line of glass tumblers produced during the 1930's that expanded into table ware. Corning manufactured this heavy duty table ware for the military during WWII with this Pyrex double tough product line. By the 1950's, it expanded the product line and sold it to commercial restaurants, hotels and cafeterias. Sometimes it created custom patterns for its commercial clients. It eventually sold the product line directly to consumers using different back stamps. The back stamp on this piece reads "PYREX double tough MADE IN USA 13". This indicates that it is an older piece from the 1950's or possibly earlier. This is the Turquoise Autumn Band pattern. But it is also frequently called Blue Laurel Leaf or Blue Grass. This has the classic white Pyrex milk glass base with an applied turquoise laurel leaf band near the rim. The cup is 2.75" tall, has a 3.5" diameter and is 4.5" wide with handle. It shows signs of wear especially at the rim from use, washing, and aging. This is a great collector piece to tell the history of both Pyrex and Corelle. This product line is the forgotten "Child" of Pyrex that grew up to become the "Mother" of all the lighter weight Corelle table ware sold directly to consumers. This happened when Pyrex spun their table ware off to the new brand Corelle in 1970. The Corelle brand became hugely popular in the 1970's. It was affordable, very tough, and it came in a variety of beautiful patterns. Additionally, dishwashers and microwaves were the new appliances of that decade that were going into middle class homes and Corelle ware was safe to use in both. If you are trying to match a vintage set look carefully at the shape of the cup because there are three different shapes. Also, there are some colors (often a lighter blue or a darker green) that can be hard to distinguish from the turquoise when photographed. The colors on the surface are difficult for a camera to capture with proper color accuracy. You might try taking a photo of the set you are trying to match to understand the difference between what the eye sees and what the camera sees. Please see my other vintage/antique kitchen items