A continuing series on well-designed everyday objects: serving their function well, handsome to look at. In this case, a piece of cobalt blue Anchor ovenware, a square baking dish 8 x 8 x 2.25 in. (2 qt. capacity). Seen here posed on top of another well-designed object, a Blueair air purifier (the top, or exhaust, surface, with a rayed pattern of circular holes):
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(Photo by Kim Darnell.)
The air purifier. In my 11/18/18 posting “Randy Blue purifies the air”.
The Anchor Hocking company. From Wikipedia:
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Anchor Hocking Company is a manufacturer of glassware. The Hocking Glass Company was founded in 1905 by Isaac Jacob (Ike) Collins in Lancaster, Ohio, and named after the Hocking River.
That company merged with the AnchorCap and Closure Corporations in 1937. From 1937-1983 the company operated the oldest glass manufacturing facility in the United States, established in 1863, in Salem, New Jersey. Anchor Hocking’s wine and spirit bottles are crafted at a factory in Monaca, Pennsylvania. It also had facilities in Elmira, New York, and Streator, Illinois.
… The company was a major producer of Depression glass. The first glassware produced as Anchor Hocking Glass Company was Royal Ruby in 1939. In addition, Anchor Hocking produced Forest Green Glass, Fire-King and Anchor Ovenware.
The Anchor Ovenware (as above) was produced in clear glass and at least three colors, which haven’t been produced for some time: (light) emerald green, cobalt blue (above), and amber brown. The clear glass endures, as in this Anchor Hocking 9-piece glass bakeware set:
(#3) 2 quart rectangular baking fish (8″x11″), 9″ pie plate, 2 quart square baking dish (8″x8″) (as above) and 3- 6 ounce custard cups with plastic lids
The handles on the baking dishes are positioned and weighted for easy handling.
The function of the baking dish in my household. These days, the dish is mostly used for baking (my mother-in-law) Monique Transue’s chewy-crunchy cookies. Latest posting on the cookies on 11/19/18, in “Revisiting 22: now with berries and cherries”. Crunchy on the (oatmeal-based) outside, chewy on the (finely chopped dried fruit) inside. Dried fruits used so far:
(Monique’s original) apricots
figs
mangos (too bland — needed lemon juice)
cherries and mixed berries
apricots and prunes
(now cooling in the kitchen) mixed fruits, plus walnuts
Still contemplating all-prune and something with dried cranberries.
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