Whatever happened to that Mary Dunbar loaf pan featured on your website? We just broke my Mom's, and need to replace it. It was her mother's, and yes she was still using it. Let me know if you still have one or where I can look for one. Thanks. My mom just turned 80 last year.

Every once in a while when we find something unusual at an Estate Sale, we buy it, even though we don't have a clue what it might be worth, just for the education it can give us when we do the research.

This glass oven ware pan was just such a find last week, that I couldn't resist. What intrigued me was the big logo in the bottom with the cursive name of Mary Dunbar in it. I had never heard of that name before, but when I did the research on her, I found some very interesting information. I even found a forum where her grand daughter was chatting about what her grandmother had accomplished!

It seems that Mary Dunbar was the name given to the Jewel Tea Co.'s spokesperson in the 1920's. The lady who went by that company name was the head of the company's test kitchen, and wrote a series of cookbooks and a monthly newsletter. She is credited with the invention of the 7 minute icing recipe. There was even a Mary Dunbar seal of approval, much like the Good Housekeeping seal of today.

It seems that the Jewel Tea Co. put coupons in with their various spices and tea products, and those coupons could be redeemed for various household goods. The most well known of these was the Hall China Co. Autumn Leaf pattern china and related items. This pattern in highly collectible today. Our loaf pan was probably one of those premium items.

Labels: Estate Sales, Hall China Co., Jewel Tea Co., Mary Dunbar, Premiums, Searching for

Labels: 1920, Dirty Butter Estates, Estate Sales, Jewel Tea Co., Mary Dunbar, nostalgia, Premiums, recipe, vintage