What are "Swankyswigs"?
What are "Swankyswigs"?
Back in the 1930s, Hazel Atlas was asked to make a new piece of glassware for the Kraft Cheese Company. Hazel-Atlas was to create a glass container that would properly house their product AND could be reused as a drinking glass once the product was gone. Kraft was about to make history by being the first company to use the glass container of their consumable product as a marketing premium; A treat, if you will, for trying out their newest product, a processed cheese spread. Hazel-Atlas and Kraft came up with Swankyswigs, a mostly straight sided glassware piece with unusually thin glass, even on its base. It's cap would be removeable to allow for its reuse as a drinking glass.
History in the Making
The first Swankyswigs were introduced in 1933 during the era of the Great Depression in the United States. During that moment in history, households were looking to save money any way they could. Giving something away for free turned out to be a genius marketing ploy that sold a lot of Kraft cheese spread! The first Swankyswigs were handpainted with a simple banded stripes design in either groups of two or four. By 1935, Hazel-Atlas added several various patterns utilizing dots, stars, and squares, and eventually sailboats. It wasn't long after releasing the handpainted pieces that Hazel-Atlas switched to a silk-screen method of applying the patterns to the glassware. And in 1936, Kraft even ordered specialty glasses for the Texas Centennial Exposition, which are now a highly rare and valuable collectible item.
A Rise in Popularity
It was in 1937, with the introduction of the new tulips patterned Swankyswigs, that the multiuse glassware's popularity really took off. Almost immediately after their release, the new tulip Swankyswigs have become the company's best seller. The abstract tulip design proved to be so popular that from that time on, nearly every Swankyswigs pattern would include some sort of tulips design or of cornflowers, or posies. Most of the Swankyswigs patterns were made using the same basic colors, red, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, and occasionally orange and brown or black. With time, the size of the Swankies grew larger and would more so resemble a tumbler and it's designs would also become more abstract. In the 1950s, forget-me-nots and bachelor boutonnieres, would be added to the patterns line.
Pre, During, & Post-War in America
The Kraft Cheese Company was able to sell a lot of cheese to the public before the start of World War II and proudly sold their Swankyswigs glassware from 1933-1941 when they halted production of Swankyswigs to produce the items needed by the government for the war effort. In 1947, production had resumed and new competitor had begun taking notice of the marketing of Kraft's Cheese Spread which seemed to have a new slogan, "Buy them all!" And with that the idea of collecting the glassware in sets was born!
New Competition
By the 1950s, other companies had begun taking notice to the success Kraft was enjoying due to their Swankyswigs glassware and got right to work on creating their own version of Hazel-Atlas and Kraft's Swankyswigs. And in 1953, Welch's Grape Jelly started using decals of the Howdy Doody Show to adorn their glassware. Later they would also use the Flintstones characters to sell their grape jelly.
Vintage "Character Glasses"
In 1958, the production of Swankyswigs by Hazel-Atlas would be halted again, but this time for good. Then in the 1960s, Welch's added new characters to their glassware lineup including Archie, Winnie the Pooh, Tom & Jerry, Dr Suess characters, and the Muppets. It's important to note here that while these glasses were inspired by Swankyswigs, they are not Swankyswigs, and are actually usually referred to as "character glasses".
By the 1970s, many other companies had jumped on the promotional glassware bandwagon including Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's, who had all begun offering promotional glassware featuring super heroes. Hardee's had the Smurf's, Arby's was Ice Age B.C., and Pizza Hut went with the Flintstones.
Collecting Swankyswigs
Most collectors of vintage Swankyswigs are interested in the pre-war Swankies rather than the postwar versions of the popular glassware. There have been modern reproductions of the vintage Hazel-Atlas Swankyswigs and they were received quite well, with their demand being quite similar to that of its vintage counterpart.
The problem is that their is not a huge demand for Swankyswigs anymore which has caused their value to decrease. Recently, a set of 20 1950s Swankyswigs glasses sold for just $75 on eBay. That's a per glass cost of just $3.75, which doesn't leave a lot of room for making any profit.
In my opinion, Swankyswigs are still a cool find if stumble across a few while you're out hunting in the wild and can get them for a great price, even if they might not be such a great find to purchase online with the added expense of shipping. Do you agree? Let me know in the comments.
If you missed yesterday's Think Ya Know? Thursday post, you can check it out here. And there is still time for you to take advantage of the 30% off sale going on now through the end of April 2022 at TheVintageVixenShop where we proudly offer FREE SHIPPING with every purchase. Use the button below to browse and save on the unique, vintage gifts Mom is sure to love! I hope you'll come back next week for another Vintage post by TheVintageVixenShop!
Until then, Happy Hunting!
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