Posted 7 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
This was a likely 'right time-right place' prize from the thrift store over last weekend -- GUARDIAN SERVICE ware isn't often found in junk shops anymore ("antique shops", maybe?) and when it does show up doesn't tend to hang around very long -- it is easily recognizable and lots of folks already DO know what it is. I wouldn't guess this pot was sitting there more than an hour before I spotted and snatched it off the shelf without looking twice (or at its price tag) on my first pass down the aisle... ;-) :-)
GUARDIAN was high-end "waterless" aluminum cookware made roughly 1930's-1950's, and mostly sold via "home dinner parties" in a way similar to the marketing strategy of Tupperware plastic into the 1960's-70's.
http://guardianservicewarecollectors.com/
This pot was part of one of their most unique if even also most common items, the (probably ironically named) "Economy Trio" -- a set designed so that *three* of these (with their kinda triangular shape, plus a matching 'trivet' platter and either aluminum or glass 'dome' lids) could be nested together, such that the efficient homemaker could prepare her entire dinner's worth of vegetables (etc) on a single stove burner at the same time. Or so went the sales pitch. ;-)
[history went on to prove that any single one was also a pretty awesome pot to cook stuff in even by itself, but anyways...]
This particular one is in pretty good typical 'used' condition...it wouldn't take too much scrubbing at all to have it shining mostly "like new". It now joins my existing collection of a couple boxfuls of assorted other GUARDIAN pieces, which was (most of) my Grandmother's set. It is actually probably my *4th* "trio" pot as such (oops...there's a math problem there...) though I don't think I yet have a single triangle *lid*... <groan>
Cool piece. Something else to look out for.
Thanks so very much for your loves and comments, to fortapache, TassieDevil, Manikin, nutsabotas6, and aura!!
You are correct nutsabotas6, the original lids for any Guardian pieces are now the most desirable (and difficult to find) due, simply, to the fact that most were made of glass. They were good heavy ovenproof glass, but still nowhere near as "durable" as the pans themselves. (which are nearly indestructible...) I believe there were also aluminum lids made, but only for a short period of time thus they aren't plentiful either. (I think reproductions are currently being made of some of the glass lids anyway, but have never really checked into that...)
More THANKS to rockbat & ho2cultcha for stopping by and tapping the <love it>! Since showing this pot, I actually have come across one more Guardian piece from a thrift store (a ~9x13" oval serving platter/roaster cover) that I need to get pics of and post up one of these days. And then there's the couple boxes of Grandma's Guardian Ware still packed up downstairs...I think there's another one of those platters in Grandma's boxes too, but don't remember for certain...?