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Inside Antiques, by Robert Reed   Inside Antiques: Enduring Milk Glass   By Robert Reed Often unheralded but never unknown, milk glass has charmed beholders for centuries as tableware and in novelty items.   The place and quality of manufacture may have changed over the decades, but since the 1700s pitchers, plates, mugs, bowls, animal figures, jars, and decorative objects have made of milk glass.   In 1740, England the light-hearted spirit of opaque white glass was accepted in part because it resembled costly porcelain which was very much in vogue both in that country and in Europe.   Back in 1743, the Countess of Hertford wrote to her son while he was on the Grand Tour in Great Britain: “They have made a great improvement in Southwark upon the manufacture of glass, and brought it so nearly to resemble old white china, that when it is placed upon a cabinet at a convenient distance, it would not easily be distinguished by an indifferent judge. They make jars, beakers, flower-pots, sauce-boats, salt-cellars and milk pots of it, which look extremely pretty.”   By the late 1750s, very attractive milk glass canisters were being produced in England for tea and other items of the kitchen. Often they were given caps of painted enamel on copper.   In the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, there is a milk glass, enamel-decorated finger-bowl. The treasure bears the initials of the artist and 1764 date, although such marks were rare on coloured glass of that period.   For all of its popularity in England, milk glass or Opal Ware as it was called by the early glassmakers, did not become fully established in America until nearly a century later.   The process of producing this opaque style of pressed glass that looked very much to Americans just like milk, was mastered in the U.S. by the 1860s. Major production, however. did not begin until the 1870s.   “Cheap colored glass (milk and other colors) was perfected in the 1870s,” according to Christopher Pearce, author of the Catalog of American Collectibles, “and by the 1890s there were over 400 factories producing large quantities of colored glassware. From this background and period come the bulk of glass collectibles.”   Customers could choose from milk glass products made by the Atterbury Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., the Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company of Greentown, In., or the Challinor, Taylor Company of Tarentum, Pa.   This seeming golden age of milk glass production saw the famous Atterbury ducks, covered dishes of the 1880s, considered by many to be the most outstanding specimens of the glassmaker’s art.   A covered animal dish of a hen on the nest, made by the McKee Brothers of Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1885, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a cracker jar produced by the Mount Washington Glass Works of New Bedford, Mass., complete with opal and gilt beads, is now in the Coming Museum of Glass.   Naturally milk glass of this grand era is still considered by many to be quite collectible.   One of Schroeder’s Antiques Price Guides notes pieces not only produced in this country but in England and France as well “during the 1870 to 1900 period, are highly prized for their intricate detail and fiery, opalescent edges.”   Writing in the 1949 book, Milk Glass, author E. McCamly Belknap offered another suggestion: “Probably the most popular collector’s items in milk glass are the hundred or more patterns of milk glass plates. There are flower, children’s, lacy edge, comic, historical, bird, and geometric design plates.”   Interestingly, many of the older milk glass plates are still available to the collector today for under $25, as are some creamers, cups, covered dishes with animal figurals and shakers.   As the Edwardian era began at the turn of the century, and women sought out the hourglass silhouette and men opted for long narrow fitted suits, milk glass was decidedly extended into the novelty field.   Delightful covered dishes with animals on the top became quite the rage. Makers offered a wide variety of animals, from cows to cats and from dolphins to doves. Some of the finest examples of the divided animal dishes came from the McKee Brothers factory in Pittsburgh, which later became a major concern as the McKee Glass Company. Often the name McKee was included on the base of the dish.   While a few of the milk glass animal dishes were made in France or England, “the majority of those kinds of dishes were as American as the Fourth of July,” according to author Belknap.   During the 1940s, Belknap said one major reason that more animal covers than bases were being found hidden away in American homes was the popularity of canaries and other small birds in the early 1900s.   The author said the bottoms of milk glass covered dishes were used in the bird case, while the cover was put up in the pantry. The result was shorter life for bases, and covers being discovered years later.   While white milk glass was the most predominating colour of such production in both the 19th and 20th centuries, it was not the only one. There were various shades of blue, deep - nearly black - amethyst (violet) and green, among others.   A great deal more kitchenware of milk glass in various colours was made during the first half of the 20th century. They included syrup jugs, salt and pepper shakers, butter dishes, flour canisters and sugar bowls.   Beyond the Great Depression of the 1930s, milk glass remained one of the specialties of the McKee Class Company of Jeannette, Pa., into the 1940s and 1950s.   McKee produced both kitchenware and novelty items in milk glass during that period as did, to a limited extent, the well-known Anchor Hocking Glass Company at nearly the same time. Covered dishes with animal figures continued to be a fond and prominent product nearly a century after they were first mass produced.   Writing in 1972, Emma Papert said in The Illustrated Guide to American Glass that Westmoreland Glass Company of Grapeville, Pa. was still making items similar to the 1890s.   Papert observed: “Their famous chick and animal covered dishes and other vessels of gleaming milk glass have been in continuous production. Since the original molds have worn out, these lovely objects are now made in reproduction molds. Such pieces are highly prized and enjoyed by their owners.”   While milk glass manufactured prior to World War I has the greatest value on the current market, pieces made since that time are certainly collectible and affordable.   “Milk glass, regardless of its age, is still milk glass,” advise noted experts Ralph and Terry Kovel, authors of dozens of books on antiques and collectibles, including How To Know Your Antiques. “It may be difficult to determine its age, but it will always be easy to recognize enduring milk glass.”   Photos: 1 - Hazel Atlas manufactured Hen on a Nest   2 - A milk glass lamp shade   3 - Salt and pepper shakers made by Tipp, USA   Robert Reed has written on antiques and collectibles for more than two decades. He has also authored 15 books, including his recently released Antiques and Collectible Dictionary, available from collectorbooks.com     Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2012 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster