Growing up, we had a chair that one half of our family claimed was green, and the other half brown. These handles recently listed on eBay (here and here) are similar, I see red, but also admit to the possibility that they are orange.
If you are one of the Revere Ware collectors who shares the fascination with colored handles with the people that seem to bid these up quite high, now is your chance.
My mother-in-law passed away a couple of weeks ago; she was a wonderful lady and will be sorely missed.
As we were going through her things with the family, there were some interesting insights into Revere Ware cookware.
My wife’s parents were married in 1953, about in the middle of the period (1939-1968) where Revere Ware cookware was the preeminent cookware of the day.
Here she is opening a wedding present – a Revere Ware skillet.
I believe that Revere Ware was quite a popular wedding gift back then, as we have heard lots of stories from our customers about still using the same Revere Ware they got as a wedding gift.
Here is her cookware now with all new Bakelite parts from us of course.
As it is, I believe these are the same pieces they had all through all these 65 or so years. However, what is conspicuously missing are any skillets.
As it turns out, we found a stack of non-stick skillets under the stove. Teflon was approved for use in cooking in 1960 and I believe became quite popular starting in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. I suspect some time during this period my mother-in-law (who did all the cooking as was typical for that generation) got rid of the Revere Ware skillets and replaced them with Teflon ones.
I think this is the point at which a lot of The Revere Ware we see for sale on eBay and in thrift stores comes on the market, at the death of the original generation that bought it.
Let’s consider the demographics of the generations that might have purchased Revere Ware in its heyday.
The best quality Revere Ware was made between 1939 and 1968. Starting in 1968, Revere Ware cookware started being produced in Korea (and then China) and was made much more cheaply, with about half the metal as the prior version. That is the period when other types of cookware started eating into the market share of Revere Ware.
The average age of (first) marriage for women was 21.5 in 1940, and about 20.8 in 1968.
The average lifespan of a woman born in 1930 (which would make them or marriageable age in the early 1940’s) was 61.6. For someone born in 1950 (marriageable in the late 1960’s) it was 71.1.
That means that people would would have gotten their first Revere Ware cookware at the start of Revere Ware popularity would have started passing away in the mid-1990’s. Someone who got their first Revere Ware towards the end of the popular period would on average pass away around 2010. This can very nicely explain why we have seen in terms of the total number of Revere Ware listings on eBay over the last 9 years. Here is a graph from 2009 to today.
While we do see “seasonal” dips over the last few years” it appears that up until a few years ago, the amount of pieces listed at any given time (which peaks around the holidays, just as our sales do) kept going up. It would seem that now, we are past the peak of the passing of the Revere Ware generations.
About two months ago, we did a post tossing out the theory that Corelle Brands (which World Kitchen, who owns the Revere Ware brand, became last year) looked like they might be preparing to dump the Revere Ware brand. Here is a good indication of why.
Consider their organic search ranking for revereware.com.
Now look at ours.
That’s right, the big company that actually sells the cookware only has 4 times the organic search traffic as we, the little guys that just sell a few replacement parts, do, and going down.
We one multiplied our annual revenue times 4, their revenue would not amount to much at all.
I can see why they might consider dumping the brand.
It does look like they tried to increase their traffic based on paid search around the time that Corelle Brands bought World Kitchen.
But this could be just to drive traffic to their other brands as well.
Here is an interesting piece currently for sale on eBay, a 10 quart stock pot.
First of all, what a great starting price for a new in box (NIB) item, only $35. If you are looking for a nice Revere Ware stock pot, I’d jump on this.
What makes this interesting is the confluence of styles. On the one hand, it has the vintage handles.
On the other hand, it does not have the process patent stamp, which I’ve always seen on this style stock pot (with those handles).
I also don’t believe I’ve ever seen a 10 quart stock pot with those style handles.
My guess is that this is something that was produced around 1968, just when Revere Ware was transitioning from the vintage era to the newer (cheaper) era of cookware.
Perhaps this is the ultimate fan of Revere Ware cookware.
I suppose if I were to get one it would be “REV WARE” or “RVR WARE”.
If you happen to find yourself in Rome, New York, where a Revere Ware plant existed for many years, be sure and visit the Rome Historical Society as they have some interesting history related to Revere Ware, including their latest additions:
I am salivating a bit at getting some pictures of the “rare and unique Revere Ware” pieces. If you visit, please send me some.
Glancing through my saved search results from eBay this week, I’ve come across some great finds.
The first is expensive, but rare; a brand new vintage 4 quart stock pot.
Next, we have a new, and incredibly cheap, drip coffee maker. I just love these.
Finally, the sought after square skillet, for a very chip starting bid.
Personally, I’ve waited years sometimes to find the right item at the right price on eBay. Simply setting some saved searches and keeping up with the results will often help you find the hard-to-find piece, or a more common piece at a good price.
Because our replacement cap & trigger don’t work on all Revere Ware tea kettle models, we’ve created this handy guide to help identify which model / capacity tea kettle you have.
We’ve written about this before, but as it is the most common question we receive, it is worth mentioning again.
Over the years, Revere Ware had many different types of lid knob screw inserts (the part that provides the threads inside the lid knob). We’ve seen brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and threads directly in the Bakelite (the worst, as they strip easily). It is fairly common for the screw insert to rust to the screw on the lid. Rust is common whenever you have dissimilar metals touching each other. Customer Evelyn send us some great pictures of her lid that has this problem.
It makes it look like it requires a press-on knob, not a screw on one.
Evelyn soaked it with oil overnight, and then used a pair of pliers to unscrew it the next day. It came off and she was able to use the replacement knob she ordered from us.
I still don’t understand the reasons Revere Ware made some colored Bakelite parts, but we do come across them from time to time. Occasionally, they sell for ridiculous amounts on eBay.
Lynda sent us these pictures of her sauce pan with orange Bakelite parts.
So far, we’ve seen yellow, white, blue, and orange colored Bakelite. And of course, black. 🙂
