Milk Glass

Milk glass, so named for its milky opacity, has a heritage that dates back centuries. Antique milk glass is celebrated by collectors, but its acclaim continues to grow today with modern producers still creating styles in the glass type.

Though the name of milk glass is relatively recent, the technique dates to the 1500s and its discovery by ingenious Venetian glassmakers. They deduced that the addition of opacifier chemicals such as bone ash could, when added to a molten glass mixture, render the finished glass brilliantly opaque.

The somewhat opalescent effect in some milk glass resulted in the technique being known as opal glass, and it was this luminous effect that catapulted milk glass into celebrity. By the end of the 19th century, milk glass pieces were incredibly popular, with new companies entering the milk glass market from Fenton and Fostoria to Kanawha and Westmoreland.

Quick Facts

• Milk glass is featured in the faces of the iconic clocks at New York's Grand Central Station and once made up the marquee of the Chicago Theater
• While white is the most well-known color, milk glass comes in a range of hues from blue and pink to brown and black
• Some makers, like Westmoreland, marked their pieces with a W through the early 20th century. Others, such as Imperial and Fenton, only began adding marks to their milk glass more recently to help collectors distinguish between antique and contemporary production