April 2014 Newsletter

Pastel Moderntone

Springtime is a wonderful time of year to bring out the pastel moderntone dinnerware, especially at Easter! I recall years ago we served the entire holiday dinner for friends and family on pastel moderntone. What a spendid display of color and our guests were well pleased with the dinnerware. This was not a hard task to put out so much of the pastel since at one time we owned nearly 1000 pieces.

Today, it may prove difficult to accumulate such a collection, since the pastel is not as easily found as it was a decade ago. The pastel colors of Moderntone include blue, green, pink and yellow. Although there are more than a dozen other colors in the platonite moderntone, I have always admired the pastels the most.

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Platonite

The glassware that is used in the production of the moderntone pastel is known as Platonite, a patented process of glass manufactured exclusively by Hazel Atlas. Platonite glass is sometimes mistakenly referrred to as milkglass. It is lighter in weight and has less opaqueness than milkglass. A distinct characteristic of platonite is that a swirling of the glass is noticeable in some pieces.

The production of moderntone on pastels began around 1936 and continued until the early 1950s. During this time Hazel Atlas also produced the moderntone on various other colors including the transparent depression glass colors.Of all the color schemes available it appears that the pastels were the most popular, since that is the color scheme most often found today.

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Colors - Pieces

The colors defined for pastel are Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink. The pink appears to be the most common color found. An original set consisted of a dinner plate, cup, saucer, cereal bowl and cake plate in each of the four colors. Included in bioxed sets were a pink and blue shaker OR a green and yellow shaker, along with opposing creamer and sugar. So if the salt and pepper were pink and blue the creamer and sugar were green and yellow.

Additional pieces sold seperately from the dinner sets were; a two handled cream soup bowl, a master rimmed berry bowl with 4 smaller rimmed berry bowls, an 8" serving bowl no rim, a 10" round serving plate and an oval serving platter.

You might find moderntone in other colors including, gray, deep pink, forest green, chartreuse, dark blue and burgundy. The moderntone was also produced in transparent depression glass colors of Ritz blue, pink and clear.

There are no known pieces that have ben reproduced in Hazel Atlas moderntone pastel, However the large plate and dinner plate (only in clear) were produced in the early 2000's by a Mexican glass manufacturer and sold through Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Price Trends

*Please note: prices quoted are retail prices, if you are selling to a dealer, you should expect at least 30% less


The pricing of Moderntone pastel has been quite stable over the last decade. The heyday of prices was realized in the mid 2000s, when more of the pastel showed up at auctions, estate sales, fleamarkets and antique shops. The demand has been just as stable as the prices. I have seen complete boxed original sets sell in the $50- $75 range. Individual pieces overall are in the $5 to $7 range each. The only piece that appears to command more money is the tumblers, which are usually in the $10 range.

Even at these prices, it is reasonable to assemble a nice dinner setting without breaking the bank! Even serving pieces are reasonable and not too difficult to find. Salt and pepper sets with the original lids are usually around $12. Overall, the priciing is stable, with no indication that the market is over saturated or that demand is too little. The pastels hold their own in price values!

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Unusual Pieces

The most unusal pieces you may find in pastel are the darker pastels which have a 'white' interior as opposed to the colored interior. This is seen in bowls and cups. The significance is that these pieces were produced later in the 1950's. Possibly as a reprisal of the color schemes. The white glass used on these pieces is not the same semi-opaque platonite as the original sets, neverthelesss, they are still Hazel Atlas prodcution pieces.

Another oddity is the cream soup, this two handled bowl was popular in the early 1930's and mid 1940's. Since soup (or, more correctly, broth) was a staple food during the depression years, a cream soup bowl was devised and sold by most of the major glass houses. Hazel Atlas produced many of their patterns with a cream soup and sold it seperatley as an add on to dinnerware sets. It is odd that they produced such a piece during a time when the usage of the cream soup bowl had waned and fell out of favor as a useful dinnerware item.

Nevertheless, the cream soups are not rare, just an unusual piece. It is difficult to find all four colors for a set, since the pink and yellow appear to be the most common. The average price for the cream soups is around $7 each.