Friday Show and Tell – Ice Cream Bowls

Show and Tell Friday is hosted by Kelli at There is No Place Like Home


This Tuesday I went grocery shopping and bought some Friendly’s Ice Cream which was on sale, buy one- get one free. One is Strawberry and the other Vanilla Bean. So far this week my mother and I have had ice cream three times. Each time I’ve served our portions in special small bowls.
This is how they look.

Back in December 1941 my parents received a set of these bowls as a wedding present. As children my brothers and sisters and I looked forward to Saturday nights when our Dad would make homemade ice cream, using one of those ice cream makers with the hand crank. We always had our serving in one of the little red bowls.

The bowls are 4 1/4" in diameter (or 5 3/4" from handle to handle), and are in the Royal Ruby color in the "Coronation" pattern by Hocking Glass Company. The design of the glass is banded with ribbing. These are called berry bowls and could be used to hold summer berries, fruit or other treats. I read that this pattern was made from 1936-1940. I suppose this makes them a variety of depression glass.

We still had these berry bowls when we moved to New York in 1959 and used them over the years. However, when their marriage ended in the early 1970’s, my mother sought to get rid of all that reminded her of Dad – a lovely French Provincial bedroom, etc. etc. including wedding presents.

But as the years went on nostalgia caused me to seek out these bowls. I bought 10 of the berry bowls and one larger 8" diameter (or 9 ¾" from handle to handle) serving bowl. It was fun serving ice cream to my small nephews and telling them that we had eaten our ice cream out of bowls like these when we were kids back home.

To see more interesting personal memorabilia, visit Kelli for a list of participating posts.