If you haven’t yet noticed, green is having a bit of a moment. While the crisp colorway has been trending in kitchen design for a while now, the folks over at Pinterest gave the hue another boost when they declared “Cabbage Crush” as a major trend for 2026. While the company was mostly championing the vegetable, the leafy obsession extends beyond produce into tones and tableware. (See below for more in that vein.)
Not that any of this matters, of course. If you’re the sort who loves antiques, you’re likely not consumed by the cultural whims of the moment. You like what you like—and if that just so happens to be green, you’re in luck, because there are so many vintage finds in all shades of the green spectrum. For your spring antiquing pleasure, here are just a few of our favorites. (Oh, and if you want to seek out a few of these items for yourself, don’t miss our 100 favorite places to shop for antiques online.)
Jadeite
In 1933, with the Great Depression at its height, consumers were on the hunt for affordable dishware. Pennsylvania’s McKee Glass Company added green scrap glass to its opaque formula, producing an inexpensive product with a novel color that satisfied that demand. Following suit, Jeannette Glass began producing what they coined “Jadite.” In 1942, Anchor Hocking copied the look with their Fire-King line of “Jade-ite.” Benefiting from a post-World War II economic boom, the line sold more than 25 million pieces over the next decade, which means there’s likely plenty of pieces to be found in your local antiques mall.
4-H Memorabilia
The roots of 4-H go back to 1902, when small gatherings—known then as “Tomato Clubs” or “Corn Clubs”—sprang up in Clark County, Ohio, and across the Midwest. Inspired by the disconnect between farmers’ traditional methods and universities’ forward-thinking developments, the clubs encouraged youth to adopt more current agricultural and homemaking practices. In 1911, the clover emblem took shape with four H’s symbolizing the clubs’ core education principles: head, heart, hands, and health.
By 1914, most clubs abbreviated the principles to “4-H,” and Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, which created the Cooperative Extension System under the USDA and officially nationalized 4-H. Since then, 4-H has maintained a strong presence in urban and rural communities, boasting more than 110 partner universities, 3,000 county offices, and six million participants. While there’s a wide range of collectibles to seek out (sweaters, project booklets, medals), we’re partial to the banners and pennants that commemorate meetings like the annual National 4-H Congress, which was held in Chicago and briefly in Memphis, Tennessee, before landing in Atlanta in 1998. Other banners celebrate state-level accomplishments, club pride, or the motto, “To make the best better.”
Girl Scout Gear
From the beginning, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low studied fabric swatches and pattern books to create an iconic look for her newly formed troops. Green proved the right hue to represent the organization, but uniform colors have varied through the years. The sash pictured here, worn by an Intermediate Scout from 1935 to 1940, features 35 pins and badges, including “Woodcraft Scout,” “Star Gazer,” and the very desirable “Golden Eaglet.”
If you’re not as interested in apparel, there’s plenty more to seek out including vintage cookie boxes, frameable scarves, and guidebooks. Take note: In general, items from the early days (1917–1930s) of the Girl Scouts are harder to find.
Cabbageware
While salad-inspired home goods date back centuries (think Italian Napoliware), the pieces you likely associate with the socialite set can largely be attributed to two American makers: Palm Beach potter Doris “Dodie” DuBois Thayer Hawthorn (known more commonly as “Dodie Thayer”) and the now-defunct Connecticut-based Wannopee Pottery.
Dodie started pottery in the early 1960s as a self-taught hobby, and soon her pieces—known as “Lettuce Ware”—were highly coveted by celebrities and tastemakers. Despite such high demand, Dodie never scaled up production and made each piece by hand in her Jupiter, Florida, home until she passed away in July 2018 at the age of 91. Given its relative rarity, large collections often sell at auction for strikingly large sums. (Frank and Barbara Sinatra’s 307-piece collection famously sold for $37,500 at Sotheby’s in 2018; designer Mario Buatta’s 107-piece collection sold for $60,000 in 2020.)
Further north and far earlier, New Milford, Connecticut–based Wannopee Pottery trademarked its signature “Lettuce Leaf”—which no doubt inspired Dodie—in the very early 1900s. Made in the majolica style (a heavy clay pottery that is coated with enamel, ornamented with paints, and finally glazed), the company’s signature collection, which featured 25 silhouettes, was only available for two years before the factory closed in 1903. The molds were sold to an employee, who moved production to Ohio before production again shut down. Lettuce Leaf’s most well-known enthusiast was likely Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whose 20-piece collection auctioned for $6,900 in 1996.
Passata Bowls
Once a staple of rural Southern Italian kitchens, these wide-rimmed terra-cotta vessels were used to process crushed tomatoes for an uncooked puree called passata. The bowls’ distinctive green splatter-glazed interiors weren’t just decorative—they served a practical purpose, deterring insects. Currently coveted by devotees of European farmhouse style, examples from the early 1900s command between $300 and $1,500, depending on age, condition, and size.
Landscape Paintings
Nature serves up no shortage of greenery, which is why landscape paintings are an easy way to bring in the color while simultaneously providing a hint of patina (think faded or cracked artwork, antique frames). Your options happily span a wide spectrum of mediums and price points.
McCoy Pottery
Back in the mid-1800s, many central Ohio farmers—including W. Nelson McCoy—produced stoneware in “Bluebird” shops. (When the bluebirds showed up, they knew it was an ideal time to produce pottery.) Fast forward two generations to 1910, when McCoy’s son, J.W. McCoy, helped his son, Nelson McCoy, found Roseville-based Nelson McCoy Sanitary and Stoneware Co. The company eventually dropped the sanitary wares to concentrate on decorative pieces, simplifying its name to the Nelson McCoy Pottery Co. in 1932. While they were known for vases, mixing bowls, and cookie jars, their largest and most popular lines were various planters in the now-iconic green glaze (see a sampling of a few belonging to Jesse Lauzon, above), as well as yellow, turquoise, white, and pink glazes.
These garden vessels included flowerpots in designs such as Basketweave and Fish Scale; shallow bulb planters; and dozens of animal-, fruit-, and flower-shaped figural planters. Nelson McCoy Jr. sold the company in 1967, and after several new owners, McCoy finally ceased production in 1990.
Belleek Dinnerware
For an especially seasonal St. Patrick’s Day note, Keith Winkler, Marketing Manager at Replacements, Ltd., says tableware enthusiasts may want to seek out Belleek Shamrock pottery, which was introduced in the 1880s and features an intricate basketweave pattern along with hand-painted shamrocks in two shades of green. “One of the most famous collections of the pattern was the coffee set presented to President John F. Kennedy during a 1961 visit to Ireland,” says Keith. (Pieces of the set later sold at auction for $20,000 as part of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis collection!)
Depression Glass
Named for the nearby Hocking River, the Hocking Glass Company was founded in 1905 in Lancaster, Ohio, by Isaac Collins and a few associates. During its first year of operation, the company produced and sold as much as $20,000 worth of glass pieces (the equivalent of roughly $516,000 today). By 1929, with the arrival of a machine that automatically pressed glass, Hocking became the largest producer of what we now call Depression Glass, inexpensively produced but elegant glassware that sold for about 4 to 25 cents apiece. Green is one of the most popular and accessible, colors within this category.
