Search for a 12oz Duralex Juice Glass
The Search has ended!
Some time in the last decades of the last century (Sounds good doesn't
it?), I purchased 4 Duralex juice glasses. They were supposed to be
unbreakable and indeed they survived multiple falls and lasted over 20
years; two broke from a fall into a sink or tile floor, the
last one was murdered by a big mug in the dishwasher - very sad ... but
life (even glasses) does go on.
These glasses are from a long gone glass store on 15th Street at 6th
Ave in NYC or a fine little shop in Amsterdam called dis 'n dat on
Utrechstraat/Prinsengracht which I suspect is also gone. They are
manufactured by a French company called Duralex which is still making
glasses but not these (to the best of my knowledge).
|
Here is a picture of the remaining glass ... | |
| It's measurements: - 12.1 mm (4
13/16 inches) high
- 7.4 mm (3 inches) wide (top diameter)
- Volume is
350mL (12oz)
| | | |  | Finally here's
a sexy shot of the glass (Gosh you didn't know inanimate objects could be
sexy ...did you?) You can see it's age and almost see it's skeleton which
makes it hard to break. | Now why am I
showing y'all this simple glass? Because I want to buy some more and here
in Seattle I have been unable to find them. So if you know of a place
which has glasses like these please
Summary of Duralex Distributors and Factories noted on this page
Notes:
Unfortunately on November 25, 2007 it appears that the USA source is now OUT OF STOCK. I tried ordering a set for a Christmas gift. What is interesting is that it appears that there are many web sites offering the glasses all going through Amazon.com - all are also Out of Stock! Hopefully they will be available in the future but I am not very positive about that.
- In August of 2007, John from Lummi Island (WA) who is a Duralex Picardie fan (not the style of the glasses above) gave me some good links to
a new Duralex site in France and a good review of picardie. I couldn't find "my" glass in the factory site but it has a large catalog and some good information about the history of Duralex and the process of manufacture.
- In January of 2007, an Israeli physics professor provided the following insight to the structure and longevity of the Duralex glasses:
"I am afraid that your last glass is about to break soon as well,
probably as easily as any ordinary glass. The "secret" of Duralex is
that the tempering introduces compressive internal stress into the
glass. What is that good for? Glass resists very well compression but
breaks under tension. A blow to the vessel always produces some tensile
stress. The internal stress neutralizes that. However, in the course of
time (years, fortunately) the internal stress gradually relaxes until it
is too low to be useful. That happens to vessels from the same batch
more or less simultaneously. Thus, when one breaks the others soon
follow. So, if you want to save the last one, keep it in the cupboard
and don't touch it."
- Hooray! In October of 2006 A US Source has been found! Thanks to Doug in Philadelphia who told me about Klinq.com and the availability of the Duralex glasses. I placed an order for 6 ($19.50 plus shipping) and received them today(100406). I don't know the extent of their supply or how much shipping would be in Europe or Asia but Klinq.com (A Montreal company that does much of it's business in USA) is a great source of the glasses right now.
- In December of 2004 The Search has ended! I could say I found the glasses but the truth is that the glasses
found me. Petteri in Tampere Finland e-mailed me and said he had 7
Duralex boxes
of 6 glasses each that he found in his basement. He gladly sold me a box
of 6! And it came quickly (13 days from Finland to Seattle - economy class)
and in perfect shape. The good news of course is that I now have
6 glasses (Actually I have 7 glasses counting the quarter century old glass I still have.)
which should last me for the rest of my life. (Famous last words ... now
the 6 glasses
will merrily find a way to prove me wrong..) But it is also good
news that there are still 5 Boxes with 6 glasses each left (Petteri gave one of the boxes to his mom) and Petteri will sell them if you are interested.
- In November of 2004, Bormioli Rocco Glass Company (USA) informed me that the
Duralex factory was no longer part of that company. In June of 2004, I received e-mail from the American distributor of
Duralex Bormioli Rocco who
informed me that Duralex still makes the glass in France but is not imported
to the USA. However he offered to "see what he could do" and although
a trip to London or Brazil for me can't be justified for a glass purchase trip, I'd be happy to have the glasses!
- In August of 2004, Martijn from Rotterdam sent me the name of a Duraflex distributor/kitchen supply store in the Netherlands Van Zwanenburg. From their
glaswerk catalog item 120267 looks like the Duralex conical glass.
Their order quantity is 48 which is too much for me. I was going to try and
get less ordered but Petteri (above) provided the glasses for me.
- In May of 2004, Mara from Brazil gave me the name of the Duraflex
distributor in Brazil Saint-Gobain/Santa Maria. It looks like the glasses are
available but I would have to contact them or distributors/stores in Brazil
and my Portuguese is pretty non exitant!
- In February 2004, I thought I had found my Duralex glass in a container for Pruno - a prison wine.
- I eventually got e-mail back from Keemlaw and was told that postage
to the USA (with contents not guaranteed) would be greater than £100 which
is a bit beyond my desired price.
- In late November 2003, a web viewer in Sweden (Stockholm?) sent me what may be the
best lead yet. Let's hope so. I have sent e-mail to Keemlaw Company in Kent, England. Item G33019+ looks like the glass I'm looking for. I'll keep you updated here - so far my initial e-mail to them bounced but I'm still confident these glasses might be the ones.
Just thinking about it - isn't the Web amazingly wonderful? (other than pernicious pornography, international spam, viruses and the commercial flash traps). This quite lonely page has drawn informative posts from USA, Canada, West Africa and Sweden. Thanks again to all who have responded. Now if these are the glasses, this page will stay as an history but I guess I'll have to put another page up with another item I want. For those of you who have gotten this far, I have been working on a page called "My personal life mottos
which is a ongoing work in progress and is only linked to from here as it is quite personal and I'm glad to share it with you Duralex Glass viewers.
- In the Summer and fall of 2003, several Web correspondents (USA and
Canada) emailed me with some agreement and suggestions and a
possible current source of the glasses:
- An E-mail from Salimata told of buying such glasses at an open air market in Bamako, Mali West Africa 5 years ago.
- An E-mail suggested to look on Ebay and second hand shops - Ebay hasn't yet shown
non fluted Duralex glasses but I haven't stopped looking there or in the
second hand shops.
- One Canadian E-mail suggested that Duralex might be available
as Corelle dishes.
- From Heather in the Toronto area, came a source of Conical Glasses at
a UK Catering Equipment web-site. Now the search would be ended if I wanted to pay £21.60 (plus shipping) for 48 glasses. Even if Nisbets would ship them to the USA and if they could pass customs - having 48 10oz glasses would be a bit too much.
- For many years this page existed and was cataloged by
the search engines. However I made the mistake of listing the manufacturer
as "Duraflex" when the actual manufacturer is "Duralex". A recent search
with Duralex does show some possible alternatives for the 12oz glass I'm
looking for. The web page above is now correct (04/05/03).
- In 2003 I actually found a 12oz glass and although it wasn't Duralex
and it wasn't simple (the glasses were imprinted with European Hotels)
I did buy a
set of 4. However the glasses were as fragile as only thin glass can be.
The glasses were bought (for a pretty penny) at a foofoo store so I should
have anticipated the result.
- Thanks to an Ebay auction win in September of 2003 I now
have three more
Starbucks 12oz cups - a total of 5 which should last me quite a while.
Is it possible that in in the year 2003, it's not a glass I'm looking
for but rather a 12oz drinking receptacle? For many years my coffee cup of
choice has been a
Starbucks 12oz cup
and I do have 3 2 of them (In May of 2003, while trying to get a "level" picture of the
cup,
I left it on it's perch (a fence post on our deck)
overnight and it took a breaking fall). Can I buy a 12oz Starbucks cup?
Nope - only 14-16oz and higher. I have alerted the flea market sellers so
they (12oz coffee cups) might appear this summer. No it is not the
original
Starbucks mermaid logo
I'm looking for - just the 12oz size!
FYI Starbucks now has a
bellybuttonless logo
on the cups. The belly button (and the spread fins which were deemed inappropriate) was removed from Starbucks stores and merchandise
in the early 90's but is still displayed in
Starbuck's first store in Seattle's
Pike Place Market.
This page was created on January 2, 2002 and
was last updated on February 22, 2009
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