Corning Ware Wildflower A-2-B 2 Quart Square Casserole with Pyrex A-9-C Lid

The Corning Ware Wildflower A-2-B is the 2 quart square casserole in Corning Ware's Wildflower pattern: a white Pyroceram dish ringed with red-orange poppies, yellow daisies, small blue flowers and a pink bloom on green stems. Corning Glass Works of Corning, New York, made it, and the town is printed in the backstamp under one handle. Its matching cover is the clear Pyrex A-9-C lid with a round knob, the same lid that fits the 3 quart A-3-B. Corning's own boxes for it carry the number A-2-7 and name it two ways, an older box calling it a "2-QT. COVERED SAUCEPAN" and a later one a "2-QT./2 L COVERED CASSEROLE" with a Corning Microwave logo.

Corning Ware began with a lab accident in the early 1950s. Corning chemist S. Donald Stookey was heating a photosensitive glass when the furnace overshot from 600°C to 900°C, and the plate came out milky white and survived a drop to the floor without shattering. That glass-ceramic became Pyroceram, first used for missile nose cones, and in 1958 Corning put it into cookware as Corning Ware. Wheat, the first pattern, sold poorly and gave way to Blue Cornflower, which stood for the brand for about thirty years. The selling point was heat, since a Pyroceram dish can go from the refrigerator to the stove, or from the freezer into a hot oven, without breaking.

Wildflower arrived in 1977. Corningware 411, a long-running collector reference, gives its run as 1977 to 1984, while Hunker and many sellers say 1985, and a Wildflower A-2-B with the raised stamp Corning used from about 1985 points to the later date. The pattern went well beyond casseroles, and Corningware 411's list of known Wildflower pieces runs from petite dishes, Menuette saucepans and a skillet to a teapot, percolators, open roasters, aluminum-bottomed Rangetoppers, Fast Food microwave dishes and the glass Counter Saver cutting board. Corelle sold matching Wildflower dinnerware, and Replacements lists Corelle Wildflower bowls with a Centura mark. In Corning's pattern numbering Wildflower is number 7, which is where the box code A-2-7 comes from.

The model number reads in parts. A is the A-series, the square Corning Ware Corning made from 1972 with straighter sides, wider handles and bigger lid knobs, and the 2 is the size in quarts. According to a commenter on Corningware 411, the trailing B means the bowl or bottom dish and lids end in C for cover, as in A-9-C, while a plastic cover such as the A-2-PC adds a P. Corningware 411 files the A-2-B under Basic Cookware as a 2 quart saucepan that takes the detachable A-10-HG handle, which explains why the earlier box says saucepan.

This copy has the printed block backstamp in gray capitals under one handle, ending RANGE - OVEN - MICROWAVE and CORNING, NY USA. Corningware 411 dates that stamp on square Corning Ware from 1979 or 1980 to about 1985, so this casserole was most likely made in those years. Its clear knobbed lid has the A-9-C shape, though no photo shows the code on the lid. The A-2-B is one of the easiest Wildflower pieces to find, with about 150 live eBay listings for a single dish on October 29, 2026.