Martha Stewart Has the Most Impressive Jadeite Collection

If your plain old white dishware just isn’t cutting it anymore, then you may be in the market to colorize your kitchen. And Martha Stewart has the perfect alternative to classic white: green. 

Stewart and her daughter, Alexis, both collect jadeite, vintage green glassware that became popular during the Great Depression. And once you see Stewart’s amassment of an entire kitchen’s worth of jadeite plates, cups, bowls, mugs, pitchers, and more, you’ll immediately see the appeal of going green.

“Before there was Tupperware or Pyrex, there was jadeite — a stain- and heat-resistant, milky-green glassware,” the caption of an April 10 Instagram post on Stewart’s official Instagram reads. “Many of these pieces originated from Martha’s daughter, Alexis, who started the impressive collection during a cross-country road trip 20 years ago. Over the years, parts of her collection have found their way to Martha’s Skylands home in Maine, and onto the sets of Martha’s shows, where viewers have fallen in love with them.”

Jadeite pieces were originally created for food storage purposes and were designed in ways to fit perfectly inside early 20th-century refrigerators. But you can find pretty much any kind of kitchen container in jadeite glass, and they pop up often at antique stores and estate sales. Some pieces will only set you back about $30, whereas other, more collectible and rare jadeite pieces, may cost you well over $100.

But, according to Stewart, jadeite is definitely worth collecting. She said in an article on her website, “They work. They’re a collectible that’s usable.”

Interested in starting your own jadeite collection? Check secondhand stores first, as these pieces are the most collectible and authentic. But if you’re in need of some instant gratification, you can actually shop Stewart’s collection of new jadeite that she released through her brand.

Sometimes the classics never really go out of style, and jadeite definitely proves that. Start hunting for your own jadeite while out and about, and before you know it, you’ll have a collection that is bursting at the seams just like Stewart’s is.