I've always liked Hazel Atlas (almost as much as Pyrex), but I just had a few odd pieces and didn't really know anything about the company. I've been listing some in the Etsy shop, though, so I've done some research...here's what I've found out:
The company was quite old. It started as two separate glass companies (Hazel and Atlas) that merged in 1902. They made the glass inserts for old zinc canning jar lids and had their own line of canning jars -- Atlas was their brand name. They had plants all over, but had several in what I think of as the 'fertile crescent' of pottery & glass companies...West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.
Their first 'pattern' was Ovide, which was really just the name they had for their plain dinnerware. In the 1930s they developed platonite, a white semi-opaque glass that they added fired-on colors to. They used the same ovide 'blanks' and the color they fired-on would determine the name of the pattern. This salad bowl set is an example of the fired-on finish and I believe the greens are in the Sierra line.
(If this salad bowl strikes your fancy, you can find it in the Etsy shop here).
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| A look at the bottom shows the platonite fired-on technique |
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| Dots and Triangles |
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| Dots |
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| Criss Cross one pound butter dish (borrowed online photo) |
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| Sadly, not mine -- borrowed online photo |
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| Ice bucket (not mine) -- stars and elephants! |
So that's Hazel Atlas in a nutshell; I really just scratched the surface. There were many more patterns and styles than those I've mentioned...you can see the variety by doing a search for 'vintage Hazel Atlas' in images. So much to choose from!
By the way, here's another Hazel Atlas piece I got at the thrift yesterday: a square vaseline glass bowl. Vaseline glass has Uranium in it and glows under a black light. I also picked up a Branchell melmac double circle bowl and an Art Deco percolator.
