1. Welcome! Mama's Kitchen is a free newsletter about kitchen collectibles. This newsletter is designed to be entertaining and educational, but also a dialogue among those who have a fondness for kitchen items of all kinds. I hope you'll join us for a few memories, giggles, laughs and some useful information about kitchen collectibles. I am not an expert in any field, but I have been buying and selling kitchen items for over 9 years and loving them for a lifetime. Remember collecting anything should be fun. This is especially true when you can use your collection on a daily basis. Please let me know if there is a particular item you would like featured in upcoming issues.

• Py/Miyao pottery manufacturing began in 1931, but it was not introduced to Americans until after W.W.II.
• Py marked pottery came from Yokkaichi City, Japan. Another familiar mark on this pottery is "Miyao". Py pottery did come from a company named Miyao. From 1949 until 1961, Miyawo Company Limited under the name Miyao produced all of these high quality PY novelties for American distributing companies.
• After the war, American military forces occupied Japan to assist with the reparationDuring this occupation, the Py trademark was exclusively given to the Miyawo Company by the general headquarters of the American military force.
• Py pottery was made from earthenware, which is soft clay and is known to chip rather easily, it is common to find minor nicks on items.
• most Py/Miyao pottery was intended for use in the kitchen. Because they are made from soft clay, I would not recommend washing them in a dishwasher when washing any ceramic items, remember to keep water lukewarm. Drastic temperature changes in pottery can cause cracks.
• the F. W. Woolworth Company was one of it's primary customers selling Veggie Face Gardeners and pretty flower girl faces.
• In 1949, UCAGO was the second oldest and one of the largest customers. In the 1950's an original design of dinnerware that represented Italian Provincial Lifestyles was createdan enduring design of a rooster and vibrant pink roses overflowing with green vines...it was named Early Provincial: This was the beginning of what is known as Rooster and Roses.UCAGO also distributed the "Oh My, A Fly!" Chef line, and Veggie Kids.
• Lefton distributed Boy & Girl Wall Pockets, Dainty Miss, Friends & Toodle Too, Bluebird & Feathery Friends, A Bee Line To Roses, Christmas Tree & Holly...
• Miyawao Co. product lines for Geo. Borgfeldt & Co. include anthropomorphic and Gay 90 tableware and Great American Character jugs: Apple Faces, Pear Faces, Lemon Faces and other Fruit Faces.  Other distributed lines: Office People, Household People,
• Cabbage Rose. Gay 90 Lady & Gentleman and the American Character jugs which included Robert E. Lee, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Captain Ahab, and Ichabod Crane...
• the Miyawo company made many , many novelties for Enesco for eight or nine years. They are hard to distinguish because Enesco didn't allow any trademarks by the manufacturer besides the word "Japan."  The Lil Bear line is one that has been identified Napco distributed Mushroom Faces.
• In the 1960's, the Miyawo Company produced for Mikasa producing dinnerware the Cerastone Line, French countryside, Ribbon Holly, Mexicana, Silk Flowers

William Kitchiner, "The Cooks Oracle," London 1827.
  

4. What is it?

Double-Gripper Jar Wrench

I have only seen these in pictures before and this is the first one I have ever found. It's heavy as the dickens but it does work and works very well.

The bottom wrench is made to hold the jar tightly while the top wrench pivots and opens the lid. It can be found in Linda Franklin's book, "300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles" on page 780. Book value is somewhere between $25.00-$65.00. 

Hi, just wanted to drop you a quick note. Oxfordware WAS Universal Potteries, it was a line they put out.  They did a lot of different color schemes, solids and decals.  From what I understand, most of these wares were manufactured for and sold by Sears Roebuck.  Check out www.ohioriverpottery.com, on the "dinnerware shapes" page.

Do you have an odd piece of kitchenalia that you'd care to share or ask others to help you identify? Just e-mail a picture and your thoughts to mamas@tias.com and we'll post it and any responses here.

Open Wide - Can and Jar Openers

What would we do without openers? How many of us have stood at a kitchen counters banging on a lid with the end of a knife trying to loosen the thing? Can you get an electric can opener to work? I can't and I still use a manual one. I'll have to rob my own stock if it ever breaks. The first one is a green and cream can opener made by A&J. They were the best thing around in the 1940s and still work great. Book value is somewhere around $10- $15. The second is a Wizard jar opener and I think every kitchen in America probably had one of these or some form of it. Book value is around $6-$8.

The third is an Arcadia jar opener which was made in Arcadia, Wisconsin and I haven't seen too many of these. I couldn't find anything similar in any books so I would estimate the value at $6-$10. The last is one of my favorites. It's a Punch N Cover for cans of evaporated milk. Not only did it open them, it helped keep the milk fresh. Book Value is $12-$15. Of course all these values depend on condition and market value at the time you either buy or sell it.

7. Tip of the Month 

To avoid stains in your plastic containers, spray with non stick cooking spray before pouring in tomato-based sauces.

Patricia wrote:

The following might come in handy where you've previously suggested using the sharp point of a steak knife to get old grease out of crevices (Tips - April 2006).
 
I've found that the easiest way to get grease off any glass bakeware, including out of the crevices, is a product called "Corningware Cleaner". It's not hard to find and is sold in hardware stores, big box stores, and major department stores. Although it's similar to toothpaste in consistency, it does a much better job for this purpose. It even removed what appeared to be YEARS of baked-on grease from items I found at garage sales or second-hand stores!
 
I must include one warning. Since it does such a wonderful job, I decided to use it to clean grease around the burner rings on my stove top. Oh, oh! The porcelain finish scratches much more easily than glass, and it didn't even take much scrubbing for the scratches to show up. Even worse, I thought I'd do the ENTIRE stove top; since it was after supper and the light was rather poor, I didn't discover until the next morning that I'd done a real number on the finish. Don't repeat my mistake - but don't avoid a great product because of it either!

Have you got a great kitchen tip or question, please send it along to mamas@tias.com

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