How Rare are Jane Ray Cups and Saucers?
Regular Fire-King Jane Ray Jadeite cups and saucers (not the Demitasse cups and saucers) are still very easy to find Fire-King pieces.
Rarity rating: 2/5
Current Prices for Jadeite Dishes
Back in the Day Value
In a 1954 magazine ad, Anchor Hocking lists the Fire King Jane Ray cups & saucers at 10 cents each.
Also, the cups, saucers, and dinner plates were often marketed in giveaways and starter sets. The cup is listed as G3879 and the saucer is listed as G3829 as open stock in the Anchor Hocking catalogue.
The cups and saucers were also included in the 12-piece starter set and the 20-piece dinner set. The 12 piece set was catalogue #G3800, and consisted of four cups, four saucers and four dinner plates.
The 20-piece dinner set was also G3800, and had four cups, four saucers, four desserts, four salad plates, and four dinner plates.
There is an advertisement for Town Crier Flour that offers one piece of Jane Ray jadeite to be included in every 25 lb bag. The available pieces were either a cup, a saucer, or two types of bowls.
Current Prices for Jadeite Dishes
I can’t determine the sizes of the bowls from the picture, but they look to be either a dessert or cereal for the smaller bowls, and perhaps a vegetable or soup bowl for the larger ones.
Jane Ray Cups and Saucers History with Pictures
In this picture, notice the different undersides of the Jane Ray saucers:
The saucer on the left is plain and unmarked.
The saucer on the right has “rays” and it is a style that is more difficult to find.
In this picture you can notice the cup ring of the saucer with the rays is larger than the unmarked saucer.
If you look closely in picture 8, you can see the Anchor Hocking symbol in the middle of the saucer.
As to why some Fire King pieces were unmarked, it’s possible that certain retailers ordered them unmarked from the factory, so they could “brand” them with their own paper labels.
Here are some additional pictures of the Jane Ray Cup to complete the set:
And some more pictures of the saucers, because.
Is there a connection between the Anchor Hocking Jane Ray dishes and Jane Ray the children’s story writer of the same period?
Hi Carol, that’s an interesting question! I’m not aware of a connection between the two. I believe the name “Jane Ray” was given to that pattern by collectors because of its “rayed” design. There were also other Jadeite patterns with female names called “Alice” and “Philbe”.
Hope that helps! Thanks, Britt