A HOUSEWIFE'S favourite comes under the spotlight in a new exhibition this week.

The National Glass Centre, Sunderland, has installed a 1950s' kitchen to display its collection of Pyrex tableware.

Loaned by friends of the centre, the glassware is typical of the 1950s and 1960s, when no kitchen was complete without a Pyrex dish.

Andrew Tavroges, chairman of the friends and exhibition organiser, said: "It's definitely a memory- provoking display.

"I imagine a lot of people will say 'I used to have one of those' when they walk in."

Pyrex is synonymous with Sunderland. The kitchen utensil was born when James A Jobling took over the Wear Flint Glass Works and made it one of the largest glassmaking factories in the country.

Today, Newell Cookware Europe still produces Pyrex from its Wearside factory