Pyrex Alternate Version Patterns

There exist two Pyrex opalware patterns which, despite their differences in decoration, shared the same name and were marketed during the same time frame, through popular trading stamp redemption programs.

Town & Country

The first was Town & Country, beginning in 1963. The "standard" version, as it is known, had bowls in solid colors (401, 402, 403, 441, 442, 443); with the so-called "large" pattern (043, 045, 063, 444); and with the "small" pattern (471, 472, 473, 474, 475). The two-color large pattern was only applied on plain opal. The small pattern consisted of a decorative element extracted from the large pattern, and was restricted to the 470 series Cinderella round casseroles.

Concurrently, the "alternate" pattern was being offered through S&H Green Stamps catalogs. This version contained only plain opal pieces all decorated in the large pattern. But, unlike the brown and orange large pattern of the standard version, this version's were in either orange or brown.

The alternate pattern version's cost of production was reduced by (1) not first painting the bowls in a base color, and (2) confining the decoration to a single color per piece, eliminating the additional screen printing pass to apply the second color.

Shapes included in the standard version but absent from the alternate include the 043 and 045. The standard version included no 404 round mixing bowl; the alternate version did, but only as a cradled, covered casserole promo.

Curiously, pieces from the Town & Country standard version are also seen in trading stamp program catalogs.

Verde

Between 1966 and 1972, two versions of Verde were also marketed. The "standard" version contains bowls only in various shades of green, the decoration being confined to an "olives" pattern applied initially only to oval opal lids, but which later replaced the plain clear lids of the Cinderella round casseroles as well.

This alternate version, like that of Town & Country, was also distributed through the trading stamp programs S&H Green Stamps and Top Value, and similarly contained bowls in plain opal decorated in a single color. Unlike that alternate version, it included solid colors in the medium avocado shade from the standard version on the 402, 441, and 443. The 501s and 502s from this version are the same as those of the standard version. The "square flowers" decoration of this Verde was derived from the short-lived Autumn Harvest pattern.

Standard version 043 and 045 oval casseroles were distributed through stamp program catalogs, but with plain clear lids.

Other

Two other patterns, Butterfly Gold and Spring Blossom Green, also had more than one version, but they were not alternates. Both initially released in 1972, each underwent a revision in base color and decoration in 1979. Both revisions also experienced sharp reductions in the variety of shapes offered, with no 404, no 024, no ovals or bakeware, and no refrigerator sets produced.