Fire King or Anchor Hocking
Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation is a manufacturer of glassware that merged the AnchorCap and Closure Corporations with the Hocking Glass Company in 1937. Anchor Hocking is primarily located in Lancaster, Ohio. (Plant #44 is located in Monaca, Pennsylvania.) The first glassware they produced as the Anchor Hocking Glass Company was Royal Ruby in 1939. They manufacture many brands of glass including Fire King.
Fire-King is an Anchor Hocking brand of glassware similar to Pyrex and made of low expansion borosilicate glass and is ideal for oven use.
History
Fire-King was originally produced in the 1940s for everyday use, rather than display. It was often sold in bags of flour as a promotional item or was given away at gas stations. Fire-King could also be purchased at local grocery and hardware stores.
Today, Fire-King is an affordable collectible found in antique stores, garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores, as well as on the Internet. Here below are what we feel are the best of the best for collectors to have in their collections.
Fire King Mug Bottoms
The photos and descriptions below are a guide to help gauge the dates of production of Fire-King mugs. The dates are all approximate. Much information about the dating of Anchor Hocking’s markings can be found in Anchor Hocking’s Fire-King Glassware by Garry & Dale Kilgo and Jerry and Gail Wilkins, published in 1997. As a general rule, the less embossing on the bottom of a mug, the older it is – however one common exception is that “Fire-King Glass” is older than “Fire-King Ware” (one alphabetic character difference!) Also, though not specified in any of the descriptions below, the mugs made after about 1950 will usually have a 2-digit mold number embossed on bottom as well. These mold numbers carry virtually no collector value or meaning
| Fire-King Oven Glass Early 1940’s | Oven Fire King Mid 1940’s | Oven Fire King Ware Latter – 1940’s |
| Anchor Hocking Fire-King Ware Made in USA 1960’s | Anchor Hocking Fire-King Made in USA Into the 1970’s | Anchor Hocking Fire-King Oven-Proof Made in USA Throughout the 1970’s |
| Anchor Hocking Fire-King Oven Proof Made in U.S.A. Late 1970’s – 1981 | Anchor Hocking 910 Fire-King Oven Proof Made in U.S.A. Institutional | Anchor Hocking Oven Proof Made in U.S.A. Placesetters Collection 1970’s |
| Mold Number 1960’s | ||
| This is the bottom of a 1960s era D-Handle mug showing only a mold number. I have seen this pattern mug on Ebay, and that mug’s standard bottom stamping dated it to the 1960s. This is also the same bottom stamp style as the B.C. series “Grog” high relief molded mug. Genuine unmarked Fire-King mugs are a bit of a rarity (except the Grog mug where this type marking is standard). |
| FIRE-KING (Block Lettering) | 1942 – 1945 |
| OVEN FIRE-KING GLASS | mid 1940’s |
| OVEN FIRE-KING WARE (Block or script Lettering) | mid to late 1940’s |
| OVEN Fire-King WARE MADE IN U.S.A. (“Fire-King” is written in script lettering) | 1951-1960 |
| ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King WARE MADE IN U.S.A. (“Fire-King” is written in script lettering) | 1960 – late 1960’s |
| ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King DINNERWARE MADE IN U.S.A. (“Fire-King” is written in script lettering) | late 1960’s- early 1970’s |
| ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King OVEN-PROOF MADE IN U.S.A. (“Fire-King” is written in script lettering) | mid – late 1970’s |
| ANCHOR HOCKING OVEN Fire-King Suburbia OVEN-PROOF MADE IN U.S.A. (“Fire-King” is written in script lettering) | late 1970’s |
Some pieces are marked only with an anchor and / or the words “HEAT PROOF”
or “OVEN PROOF”. The style of anchor logo may help to date the period.
Anchor-Hocking Logos
1937 to 1976
1976 to 1999