Green Depression Glass (photograph: Steven Sternbach)
I first encountered the fashion for “vintage Pyrex” a decade ago when I discovered that the mother of a Japanese student I was tutoring shopped for it regularly in antique and second hand stores, intending to ship it back to Japan where it sold for a bundle. Recently I came across an article citing pieces that sell for hundreds even thousands of dollars in this country. I gag. This pale milky glass kitchenware with insipid floral designs is the stuff your mother gave you when you got your first apartment. It goes with olive stoves and yellow refrigerators. Who wants to remember that unfortunate period of kitchen design? A lot of people, apparently.
I am reminded of the first time I came across Depression glass in my late teens. I was fascinated by the colors. My mother sniffed, “Oh, Depression glass.” People couldn’t afford quality glass in the 1930s, so manufacturers colored the glass to cover up its imperfections. My mom didn’t find the Depression and its necessities any more nostalgic than I find the tastes of the 1970s. Unlike Pyrex, you can’t apply heat to Depression glass, but I still treasure the large emerald green salt and pepper shakers, the pale green reamer and the four-cup measuring cup that I have acquired over the years from flea markets and antique stores, and I use all of them, careful never to put hot water in the measuring cup. Nostalgia is clearly in the eyes of the nostalgic.