I’m bemused at the number of mayo sets we find in glass from the 1920s – 1960s or so. These pretty sets are a small bowl that holds between 8 and 16 ounces, a liner plate for under the bowl, and often a ladle that sets neatly in the bowl. This Fostoria Romance set is typical.
None of the ladles I’ve seen have been etched or decorated, although the shapes vary, some are rounded like the one shown, some are more ladle-like with vertical sides. Most have a rounded handle to fit over the edge.
I always wonder just how much mayonnaise people ate in the 1930s. It’s relatively simple to make, egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard, simply processed together, not even cooked. But what did they DO with it? It only keeps a couple days in the refrigerator so families must have used quite a bit of what they put into their pretty mayo sets. Anyway, let’s look at the glass, not worry about menus!
Relatively fewo mass-produced depression patterns included mayo sets, not even very large patterns made for many years, such as Cameo or Block Optic have these. Crackle is an exception.
Imperial Glass Twisted Optic is considered depression glass but it’s quite nice quality and the colors are lovely.
This Queen Mary combo is called a mayo set too, a stemmed bowl and a liner plate.
Elegant glass companies continued to make mayo sets well after the depression. The Romance one shown above likely dates to the 1950s or 60s as Fostoria made the pattern from 1942 to 1986, with its heyday in the mid-century period. Fostoria included mayo sets in their Century pattern and in many of the etched patterns that used Century blanks.
Another lovely Fostoria mayo set is this Chintz-etched Baroque crystal bowl and liner. This bowl is slightly smaller than some, probably holds 8 ounces.
Fostoria used Baroque for many etchings and decorations. This gorgeous etched mayo is Lido.
A few more from Fostoria coming up. First this Coronet set.
Coronet is a pretty blank that Fostoria sold as a plain pattern and with cuttings such as Cynthia, this next set.
Not all mayonnaise bowls have only one compartment. This very pretty topaz yellow divided bowl is Lafayette, an older Fostoria blank, and is called a divided mayo. One could put mayonnaise in one side and salad dressing in the other. This bowl is in our personal collection.
Some mayonnaise bowls are flat or have small feet as the Fostoria ones shown, others are stemmed as is the Crackle one above. Cambridge made more than one shape of mayo bowl and this Rose Point one is unusual
This next piece is also Cambridge, Cascade yellow liner plate. The photo is lousy but I wanted you to see how the liner plate has a ridge to hold the bowl. Some liners have little wells, other patterns use ridges.
When I started this post I didn’t realize quite how many mayo sets we had! Here is one from Paden City.
This last one is likely the oldest we had, a custard glass set. I don’t know who made it.
Don’t feel bound to use these charming sets solely for mayonnaise! These are excellent for dips – the liners catch the drips and the bowls hold a good amount. Or use them for salad dressing or chutney and the like. These will add elegance to your table and are much, much better looking than a jar of store-bought mayo!