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🐝 The Honey Bee Box Was Indiana Glass Long Before Tiara Exclusives

By The Vintage Shack®

If you collect vintage glass, chances are you have seen the beautiful covered Honey Bee Box decorated with bees, old-fashioned beehives, flowers, and geometric details.

Today, collectors commonly call it a “Tiara Honey Bee Box.”

But here is the fascinating part:

Tiara Exclusives did not create the Honey Bee Box.

The history of this little glass treasure reaches much farther back into the history of Indiana Glass Company—decades before Tiara Exclusives even existed. 🐝

And once we separate the original Indiana Glass production from the later Tiara and Home Interiors/HOMCO versions, the story becomes much more interesting.

🐝 WHERE DID THE HONEY BEE BOX BEGIN?

Indiana Glass Company of Dunkirk, Indiana, was producing comb-honey dishes remarkably early in the 20th century.

A historical article published in Bee Culture reports that Indiana Glass produced at least three styles of comb-honey dishes around 1910–1913:

Rayed Flower
Garden Paneled Thistle
Honey Box with Bees

These weren’t originally intended as candy dishes, jewelry boxes, or decorative trinket boxes.

They were designed for comb honey—sections of honeycomb that could be brought directly to the dining table in an attractive covered glass dish.

That means the design we associate today with 1970s and 1980s Tiara glass actually has roots going back more than 100 years.

🐝 ENTER INDIANA GLASS #132

The familiar Honey Bee design eventually became identified as the Indiana Glass No. 132 Honey Dish.

There is a little uncertainty concerning its exact first production year.

The Early American Pattern Glass Society dates the introduction to approximately 1915 and notes that the design appears in a 1917 Butler Brothers catalog. The earliest surviving Indiana Glass company catalog currently identified by collectors dates to about 1921.

The Indiana Glass Collectors archive likewise identifies 1921 as the first known company-catalog appearance of #132.

So, when dating these pieces, I would describe the timeline this way:

Honey-dish production: approximately 1910–1913

No. 132 Honey Dish documented by approximately 1915–1917

First currently known Indiana Glass catalog appearance: 1921

That distinction is important because saying that Tiara “invented” the Honey Bee Box in 1970 erases roughly half a century of Indiana Glass history.

🌈 WHAT COLORS EXISTED BEFORE TIARA?

Here is where the story gets especially interesting.

Indiana Glass was already experimenting with the Honey Dish in different colors before Tiara Exclusives began selling it.

The Indiana Glass Collectors archive documents:

🤍 Milk Glass — late 1950s

A beautiful opaque white version was being produced well before the Tiara era.

By 1968, Indiana Glass’s Greenwich Flint Craft line documented the #132 Honey Dish in:

💙 Blue — No. 0663

🧡 Sunset — No. 0689

💚 Olive — No. 0832 — RARE

💛 Yellow — catalog number uncertain — RARE

The collector archive describes the Yellow example as essentially “unstruck Sunset.”

So collectors searching for a “pre-Tiara Honey Box” should pay very close attention to these earlier colors and construction.

👣 LOOK AT THE FEET!

One of the most useful clues for dating these boxes is underneath them.

Early #132 Honey Dishes have splayed feet.

Indiana Glass collectors identify the splayed-foot examples as hand pressed and produced before 1974.

Later examples have straight feet, associated with machine production.

This gives collectors an important lesson:

Color alone should never be used to date an Indiana Glass Honey Box.

Look at the feet, glass color, finish, construction, mold characteristics, provenance, labels, and—when possible—catalog documentation.

👑 THEN CAME TIARA EXCLUSIVES

Tiara Exclusives began operating in 1970 as a home-party/direct-sales operation associated with Lancaster Colony Corporation.

Indiana Glass and Tiara were not simply unrelated companies where Tiara walked into the Indiana Glass factory and asked them to copy an old dish.

They were corporate relatives.

Indiana Glass manufactured the glass; Tiara Exclusives marketed and sold much of it through the home-party system.

That relationship explains why so many old Indiana Glass molds and designs resurfaced under the Tiara name.

Tiara itself generally did not manufacture the glass. Indiana Glass produced much of Tiara’s merchandise, although other companies—including Fenton and L.E. Smith—also supplied glass to Tiara.

So the Honey Bee Box was essentially an Indiana Glass classic given a new life through Tiara Exclusives.

🌈 THE TIARA HONEY BOX COLOR PARADE

One of the reasons collectors love these boxes today is the extraordinary number of colors and treatments.

A period-history summary published in Bee Culture gives the following Tiara Honey Box chronology:

1970 — Amber, splayed feet
1971 — Amber or Gold
1978 — Crystal Etched
1978 — Milk Glass
1979 — Black
1982 — Chantilly Green
1982 — Ice Blue
1982 — Horizon Blue Etched
1983 — Chantilly Green Etched
1983 — Horizon Blue
1987 — Pink Etched
1988 — Crystal
1989 — Amethyst
1989 — Imperial Blue
1991 — Aquamarine
1994 — Aquamarine Etched
1994 — Peach
1995 — Decorated Cranberry
1996 — Decorated Ruby
1998 — Spruce

That is quite a rainbow. 🌈🐝

Indiana Glass collectors also confirm that Imperial Blue was a Tiara color introduced at Indiana Glass beginning in 1986, with the Honey Dish among the pieces subsequently produced in that distinctive cobalt-family color.

🐝 ARE THERE DIFFERENT “PATTERNS”?

Yes—but collectors need to distinguish between mold design, glass color, and surface treatment.

The basic #132 Honey Dish features recognizable molded motifs including bees, beehives or skeps, flowers, geometric/diamond details, and the covered-box form. The EAPGS pattern database categorizes its motifs as figural, diamond point, and insect.

But examples can look dramatically different because Indiana Glass/Tiara also produced:

Plain transparent glass
Opaque milk glass
Etched/frosted versions
Iridescent or specialty finishes
Decorated versions
Different colored glass

There are also early splayed-foot and later straight-foot versions.

Consequently, two Honey Boxes that appear to be completely different “patterns” may actually come from the same fundamental design family.

🏠 WHAT ABOUT HOMCO/HOME INTERIORS?

This is another area where online listings create confusion.

HOMCO is commonly used by collectors as shorthand for Home Interiors & Gifts, the home-party decorating company founded by Mary Crowley in 1957.

Home Interiors also sold Honey Boxes. Bee Culture specifically records that Indiana Glass had pallets of Honey Boxes sold to Home Interiors.

And something particularly interesting happened after Tiara closed.

Tiara Exclusives ended operations in 1998.

Indiana Glass did not immediately abandon all of the colors and ideas associated with Tiara.

Indiana Glass collector research documents a Plum Tiara-related color made for Home Interiors in 1999.

That helps explain why collectors sometimes encounter purple/plum Honey Boxes described as 1999 Home Interiors pieces rather than regular Tiara production. Examples are still identified in the collector marketplace as 1999 Home Interiors/Tiara-associated Plum Honey Dishes.

IMPORTANT COLLECTOR NOTE

I would be cautious with internet lists claiming a large, definitive catalog of “HOMCO Honey Bee Box colors.”

The documentation I found is much stronger for the extensive Tiara color chronology than it is for an equally extensive HOMCO-exclusive color list.

What we can document is that Home Interiors sold Indiana Glass Honey Boxes and that the relationship continued into the post-Tiara period.

That distinction is worth preserving rather than turning collector assumptions into historical fact.

📅 WHEN WAS THE LAST HONEY BOX MADE?

This question requires another distinction.

The last Tiara Honey Box appears in the documented chronology in 1998, with Spruce listed for that year.

But that was not necessarily the end of Indiana Glass Honey Box production.

Indiana Glass research documents Tiara colors being made for Home Interiors in 1999, including Plum.

Therefore:

🐝 Last documented Tiara era:

1998

🐝 Post-Tiara/Home Interiors production:

At least 1999

This is why I would not describe 1998 as the absolute final production year of every Indiana Glass Honey Box.

💰 WHAT ARE HONEY BEE BOXES WORTH TODAY?

This is where things have become a little crazy.

The Honey Box has crossed over from traditional Indiana Glass collecting into bee décor, cottagecore, vintage kitchen, colored-glass, and maximalist decorating markets.

That increased audience has helped push prices upward.

Recent 2026 asking prices show just how strong the market has become.

An Ice Blue example has recently been offered around $235–$290, while an Amber example has been offered around $235. A Spruce example with its original sticker and box has been offered around $325.

Auction estimates from a 2026 estate auction provide another useful reference point:

Frosted Satin — $100–$200 estimate
Clear with original box — $150–$250 estimate
White Milk Glass — $150–$250 estimate

These are useful market indicators, but remember:

Asking price does NOT equal sold price.

For appraisal purposes, I would place much greater weight on verified auction results and documented sold transactions than unusually ambitious online listings.

💎 WHICH HONEY BOXES ARE RAREST?

Not every color deserves the same rarity designation.

Among the pre-Tiara Indiana Glass pieces, the collector archive specifically identifies:

💚 1968 Olive — RARE

💛 1968 Yellow — RARE

These early colors deserve special attention because they represent Indiana Glass production before the massive Tiara home-party era.

Within later production, desirability tends to rise for unusual colors and treatments such as:

💜 Amethyst/Plum
💙 Imperial Blue
💚 Spruce
🖤 Black
🤍 Milk Glass
🌸 Pink Etched
🩵 Aquamarine Etched
❤️ Decorated Cranberry/Ruby

But rare and expensive are not automatically the same thing.

A color can become expensive because it is fashionable and heavily sought after even if another color was actually produced in smaller numbers.

That is why documented production history matters.

🔎 WHAT SHOULD COLLECTORS LOOK FOR?

When evaluating a Honey Bee Box, examine:

The feet — splayed versus straight.

The color — compare it with documented Indiana Glass/Tiara colors.

The finish — plain, etched, frosted, decorated or iridescent.

The lid — a correct matching lid dramatically affects value.

Condition — rim chips and flea bites are especially important because the lid rests directly against the base.

Labels — surviving Tiara labels add provenance and collector appeal.

Original packaging — exceptionally desirable.

And most importantly:

Do not identify one solely because an online seller calls it “Tiara,” “HOMCO,” or “Indiana Glass.”

Research the actual piece.

🐝 DID YOU KNOW?

Perhaps the biggest misconception surrounding the Honey Bee Box is that it was a funky piece of 1970s glassware created for Tiara home parties.

It wasn’t.

Its ancestry reaches back to the era when people actually placed sections of honeycomb on the dining table.

Indiana Glass transformed that practical object into a beautifully molded piece of American pressed glass, kept the design alive for decades, and eventually introduced it to an entirely new generation through Tiara Exclusives and later Home Interiors.

More than a century later, collectors are still chasing those little bees.

And THAT is exactly why I always say…

Vintage isn’t simply old stuff.

It’s history you can hold. 🐝💛

Sources & Further Reading

Bee Culture, June 2019, “Comb Honey Dishes Are Stylish, Expensive, Practical, And Hard to Find.”
Indiana Glass Collectors, Gallery #132 — Honey Dish, including early catalog appearances, pre-Tiara colors and rarity information.
Early American Pattern Glass Society, Indiana Glass Co. No. 132 Honey Dish, documenting early production and the 1917 Butler Brothers appearance.
Indiana Glass Collectors, Ask Indiana Glass, including information from former Indiana Glass employees and color-production history.
Indiana Glass Collectors, research concerning Imperial Blue and Tiara production.
Current 2026 secondary-market and auction references used only as market indicators.