A comprehensive guide to the age of vintage Pyrex measuring cups from the 1940s to 1983.
I’ve purchased a few vintage Pyrex measuring cups at estate sales and yard sales over the years. The internet doesn’t seem to have much information on the age of Pyrex measuring cups by decade, at least not summarized into one place. A few well-known details are fairly common to find online:
- D-handle measuring cups are older (shown in the photo below), open-handle measuring cups are newer
- Metric measurements were not added until sometime in the 1970s
I decided to look through the Corning Museum of Glass’s collection to see what I could piece together about characteristics of measuring cups by age. I also reached out to Casey Barber of Good Food Stories to see if her photo of the measuring cup exhibit at the Corning Museum had anything I couldn’t find online. Then I looked at a lot of Pyrex catalogs to compare images. Big thanks to The Pyrex Collector for linking to the Corning Museum’s Pyrex catalogs from one page!
This post is a summary of what I’ve found in my research thus far. Sources in addition to the two I just mentioned are linked throughout the post. I have tried as best I can to compile the information and connect the dots, but there are some gaps in my research from the 1970s and the 1980s, which I’m working on. I’ll continue to update this post as I find more information. Throughout this post, ~ denotes that the year is an estimate.
I use my vinatge Pyrex, including measuring cups, in my everyday cooking. You'll see a lot of vintage Pyrex appearances in photos on my recipe posts!
Pre-1940s Pyrex Measuring Cups
- No red markings. Markings are raised/stamped in the glass.
- Example: this one from 1926. See also this 1938 catalog.
1940s-1953 Pyrex Measuring Cups
- D handle
- No metric measurements
- Red markings
- Do not say “Pyrex” on the sides with the measurement lines
- “Pyrex” and the cup’s capacity is on the spout side of the cup
- Example: This one and this one. The 1941 catalog says, “note how easy it is to read red markings.” See also this 1953 catalog vs. this 1955 catalog. I need to find a 1954 catalog to see whether it shows “Pyrex” on the spout side or measurement line sides.
~1955 through ~1974 Pyrex Measuring Cups
- D handle
- No metric measurements
- “Pyrex” is on the sides of the cup with the measurement lines after 1953. 1950-1953 cups are the same as those made in the 1940s. (Based off of a 1953 catalog and a 1955 catalog)
- Spout side of the cup is blank
- 1950s Examples: this one and this one.
The 1960s measuring cups seem to be the same as the ones made in the 1950s. Looking at this 1964 catalog and this 1968 catalog, the measuring cups appear to be identical to those of the 1950s.
~1975 through ~1982 Pyrex Measuring Cups
- D handle. Pyrex introduced the open handle design in 1983 (source: Pyrex).
- “Pyrex” on the measurement sides of the cup
- Metric measurements were likely added in 1975. (See this 1975 catalog, which states, “metric and customary measurement markings.” This same notation was not in the 1974 catalog, but I can’t tell for certain from the image whether it has metric measurements.)
- Examples: this one and this one. Here is an example of one from the 1983 with the open handle.
I have a pyrex cup with no measurement markings but does have the spout. The bottom is stamped For general household and photographic use only. Numbers 508 and BB-7 are also stamped on the bottom. You have to read the markings from inside the cup. How old is this thing, is it a collector item?? Thank you.
The 508 is a measuring cup from the 40s-60s. I don’t recall if the 508 numbering continued into the 1970s. It should probably have measurement markings, though. I can’t really find any without. I’m wondering if perhaps it had them at one point in time and they came off in the dishwasher? I don’t put my vintage measuring cups in the dishwasher, but some of my newer ones have definitely lost their markings that way.
I just this week picked up a measuring cup with the same embossing on the bottom, but my numbers are 532 and 1-21. Mine has the red markings but are barely visible. I've seen numerous photos of bottom embossings but not with the " general household and photographic use only like ours
I don't normally comment on things like this. It was very informative , didn't drag on too long. It was very interesting. Thank you!! I did find an eight cup upper case letter PYREX Measuring cup in almost new condition at the thrift store.
I have a green (not tinted green) glass
1/2 litre PYREX liquid measuring cup. With red writing. There is no writing on the bottom except a tiny tiny
dot on top and dot on below the number 12
I am guessing it is from Europe.
Can you tell me anything about it?
Thank you
Hi thank you for your work!! Very helpful. I want to let you know there are two links that are broken and they are to the 1954 catalog and the 1968 catalog. They both have a 404 error code saying item has been moved and is not available. A
Also, I noticed you don’t mention anything about these letters that we are all seeing in the bottom of our cups. Mine both have this letter-number combo and the newer one has 532 C-82 and the older one has a 532 L-21. Do you know what this second letter and number means? Do you know are they perhaps where they were manufactured? According to Google lens it’s not a date stamp.
I can thank you for all your hard work. It is appreciated.
Thank you for letting me know! I'll add to my to-do list to get those updated. I'm not sure about the letters, but I'll see if I can figure that out for the next time I update the post.
I apologize if I missed this but when were capital letters used “PYREX” as opposed to the lowercase letters “pyrex“