Its not "carnival" glass as we know it...just irridescent glass. Looks rather new to me....does the cherub hold a magnate? Linda C

When did your great-uncle arrive in the U.S.? From my quick search on Ebay.de (not Ebay.com!) it appears that this style of engraved glass was common up to the 1960's. Some sellers date similar glassware as early as the 1900's and attribute it as Jugendstil. Also, my family back in Moscow, Russia, has a set of engraved liqueur glasses with a very similar floral design, although not identical. The glasses were made in Czechoslovakia in the early 1960's. I saw similar glassware in other homes in Moscow, usually 1950's-1960's Czechoslovakian, Polish or East German imports. Apparently, this style disappeared in the 1970's. When I looked on Ebay.de, some of the glassware in this style was said to be French. It seems that this style was manufactured throughout Europe for many years. You might want to browse glassware for sale on Ebay.de to see if there's anything close to your set. Here is a link that might be useful: Jugendstil Glasses on Ebay.de

Yes, it happened to my wife and I today, November 27, 2012. The dish was being used for the second time only. My wife had made a lasagna in it. She took the lasagna out of the oven, and about 1 minute later, we heard the sound of pieces of glass landing on the floor in front of the stove. The shards of glass traveled about 8 feet from the dish. In the attached picture you can see the dish is on a metal tray, which was put under the glass dish in case some cheeze bubbled over. It was set on top of the stove, on the two front burners which were cold to my touch. So I'll be getting my money back for the dish, and I'll be asking for the cost of the Lasagna to, which was worth more then the dish. Elsewhere I have read that the type of silica used to make Pyrex has changed and that Pyrex is no longer, "Pyrex". Corning is just licencing the name and it is no doubt made by someone who knows about price, but little else. This particular dish had wide horizontal handles and came with a plastic lid.

Thank you, mitchdesj for your reply. The sort of problem that I'm worried about is leachable metals, like lead, that are ingredients in glazes (and glassware). After doing a quick search on Google, I came up with these two articles: Some imported glassware hazardous FDA Consumer, March, 1990 Several patterns of imported glass tableware sold last spring at Macy's, Nordstrom's, and several other department stores in California, New York, and the Northeast may contain dangerously high levels of lead that can leach into food. The patterns are "Crackle Rim," "Murrina Clear," "Cracked Gold," and "Murrina Transparent Silver" collections of dinner plates, soup plates, bowls, stemware, vases, and ashtrays. Some of these patterns may also be sold as the "Orofolio" collection. Consumers who purchased any of this glassware should immediately stop using it and return it to the store where purchased. Eating off these products or even handling them could cause acute abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea in adults and children, or central nervous system damage in fetuses and small children. Lead leached from samples reached levels higher than 16,000 parts per million (ppm). (Currently, safe levels for ceramic products range from 2.5 to 7 ppm. An FDA proposal now is calling for lowering the allowable limit to 0.1 ppm for some items.) FDA discovered the problem during a routine inspection of a shipment that arrived at the San Francisco port. Other shipments were sent to the New York port. The glassware was manufactured by SI-AN di Cioni & Busoni of Florence, Italy, and sold to various U.S. companies. R.H. Macy Company and other retailers have taken the glassware off their shelves and posted warnings of the danger to alert customers who had purchased the products. ....Here's another article: A rapid lead test: Public outreach and testing to detect leachable lead in ceramic ware Abstract A modification of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lead screening test of ceramic ware was made to screen large numbers of samples in a short time frame. Ceramic ware in use by Davis and Sacramento, California residents was tested. Lead was leached from ceramic ware with citric acid and identified by rhodizonic acid in this quick, qualitative test. Of 92 individual pieces of pottery tested, approximately 6.6% were positive for leachable lead. Approximately 67% of the positive samples were handmade in Mexico. This rapid test is sensitive to two (2) parts per million (ppm, g/g) leachable lead. Ceramic ware with detectable leachable lead levels may present a health risk to individuals who habitually use such items for food storage and/or consumption. Because only 2030 minutes is needed to perform the test, immediate communication of results to the participant is possible. . . . . Both of these articles are at least 10 years old, so maybe the problem no longer exists. However, a good friend just bought a child's lunch box last week from LL Bean which was vinyl on the inside (and made in China). The enclosed directions said to throughly clean the vinyl interior to remove residues from manufacturing. China does not have the regulations in place that keep toxic dangerous compounds like lead out of the air, water, or soil. In fact, food grown in certain areas contains lead, so I try to avoid foods made in China (like honey). This is one of the reasons why stuff from China is cheap. I think you're right about clear glass (is glass naturally clear?). Also, given that I'll be storing stable ingredients like flour and sugar (rather than acidic foods), I think it should be safe. I don't subscribe to women's magazines or health magazines, the newspaper, or watch the news, so I wanted to check here to make certain that what I purchased was food-safe. I'll give them a good scrubbing with lots of hot water and call it a day. Oh, and I think that the lids are aluminum. Thanks again!