A little history:

The DURALEX Companie began making domestic tableware in 1918 and debuted its Picardie line of glasses in 1927 fashioned after an 18th Century French design with nine tulip leaves. In 1934, Saint Gobain acquired DURALEX and made it a wholly owned subsidiary. Saint Gobain was founded in Paris as a mirror maker in 1665 and is now one of the top 100 world-wide industrial conglomerates with over 208,000 employees.

In 1939 DURALEX began making glasses with a then-revolutionary glass tempering process. The patented procedure reheats the newly formed glass up to 600 degrees and then rapidly cools it. This additional step gives it several times the strength of regular glass. The resulting glassware is break and chip resistant, thermal-shock resistant, and, dishwasher and microwave safe. If it does break, it shatters into small shards that can be vacuumed up rather than more dangerous irregularly shaped and larger knife-edge pieces of glass.

Made primarily in La Chapelle Saint Mesmin, the glasses had the DURALEX name and a tiny number (1 through 48) molded into the bottom of the glass below the letter "A" as shown above. This is a mold number for quality control purposes. (In our house, whoever had the lowest or highest number did the dishes. Mom would announce "high or low" during the meal so no one could cheat.)

The Williams-Sonoma Company brought the line to the United States in the 1950s marketing it under their own name. It rapidly became one of the most popular glassware lines in the US. The earlier success of Williams-Sonoma is partly (largely?) based upon this line. It says "Williams - Sonoma San Francisco CA" in the lower right section of the image below.


DURALEX was sold to Bormioli Rocco & Sons in 1997. A couple years later a few high management staffers took it private but it soon fell in profitability. In 2004 the company entered receivership. When DURALEX exited government supervision in December 2005, it was sold to Sinan Solmaz, formerly one of their largest international distributors. Names on the box will give you a clue to when yours were made. Look under the "DURALEX" on the box below. Stickers on the individual glasses shown above changed, too.



This new-owner generation of glasses says "DURALEX" and "MADE IN FRANCE" in arcs across the 12 and 6 o'clock positions on the glass bottom as pictured below. The design logo in the bottom center may be absent but the quality and strength are the same.


Unfortunately, DURALEX discontinued large scale distribution of the original Picardie line to the US when the most recent ownership changed. The new owner is based in Turkey and the vast majority of production now goes to the Middle East. Fortunately, these glasses last almost forever. Buying some extras now is a very wise investment for the future.

Because of the tremendous success of the design and the strength of the glass, this pattern is widely copied. Imitators will vary slightly in size and most likely do not have the strength.  This can be a real issue for parents who depend upon the safety of DURALEX glasses. Imitators will probably not nest very well, either.


The shapes and sizes:


                                                                 METRIC                                        U.S.
                     SHAPE                    VOLUME         HEIGHT              VOLUME         HEIGHT
                     Old-Fashioned               9 cl               64 mm                  3 oz               2 1/2"
                     Old-Fashioned             13 cl               72 mm                  4.4 oz             2 3/4"
                     Old-Fashioned             16 cl               77 mm                  5.4 oz             3"                *
                     Old-Fashioned             22 cl               84 mm                  7.5 oz             3 1/4"
                     Old-Fashioned             25 cl               88 mm                  8.5 oz             3 1/2"           *
                     Old-Fashioned             31 cl               94 mm                10.5 oz             3 3/4"
                     Tumbler                       36 cl             123 mm                12.2 oz             4 3/4"           *
                     Tumbler                       50 cl             145 mm                16.9 oz             5 3/4"           *

     
Williams-Sonoma only carried the four sizes (two old-fashioned and two tumbler) marked above with an asterisk; those are the sizes most common in the US. The metric dimensions are exact. The US sizes and volumes are rounded off  to the nearest tenth of an ounce and eighth of an inch for your convenience. The remaining sizes have limited availability through other distributors or directly from Europe.

In our family we called the 3" the juice, the 3 1/2" the milk, the 4 3/4" the soda and the 5 3/4" the (root beer) float. Those were the tasks for which these were most used. It is much easier to say "Get me a soda glass" rather than "Get me a 36 centiliter glass".

Although the sizes are very close, they will not stack well if they are not the same size. Once you decide which sizes you want, make sure you stick to those. Remember, there are eight different sizes. Our kitchen glassware shelf is 29" wide (inside) and that allows for eight rows across with spacing, two rows each for the four sizes marked above with an asterisk.

We've used our glasses daily for over 30 years with them surviving five children and their friends. These were probably the best tableware investments we made. We continue to buy them from garage sales, Goodwill, Salvation Army and anywhere else we see them. At these kind of sales they are usually 25 or 50 cents each!

ebay is one of the few places where all sizes and brand new sets can be purchased. Be patient and your size will appear. Regretfully, prices are substantially higher now than a couple years ago, almost triple. The principle of "Supply and Demand" is apparently alive and well.