Silver Crest Nut or Sherbet Dish

History of Milk Glass:
Milkglass was introduced in the 16th century but the term ”Milk Glass” wascoined in the 20th century to describe the opaque white glass servingpieces and decorative objects that began their popularity in the late1880s.

Bythe early 1900s milk glass became the symbol of style and taste inAmerican households. U.S. glass manufacturers including Westmoreland Fenton Fostoria New England Glass Company Bryce Brothers Gillinder& Sons and Atterbury & Company actually made a name forthemselves with milk glass. In particular Fenton’s line of Hobnail milk glass in the 1950’s became the company’ssignature pattern contributing to the resurgence of interest in thisretro formduring the 1960’s.

Opaque milky blues shell pinks soft greens and other non white variations began to appear in many lines.

My Antique Mall noteson it’s website ”For objects such as serving dishes milk glass wasoften pressed so that its surface had a diamond-cut pattern-collectorsrefer to these as Sawtooth pieces. Atterbury was especially well knownfor its covered Sawtooth dishes in the shapes of ducks fish and otheranimals. In fact Atterbury made so much milk glass that the company’sPittsburgh factory was often referred to as the White House.

Thesite also informed ”In a class by themselves are the covered servingdishes whose tops resembled roosters chickens hens and swans aswell as lions and other less domestic beasts. Sometimes people werehonored by having a bust of themselves cap a casserole dish althoughthe ones made for Thomas Dewey failed to elect him president. Moresuccessful were the Atterbury cats from the 1880s which had real glasseyes.”

Inthe mind of many collectors Westmoreland is perhaps the mostsynonymous with milk glass as it was a staple of the company’s ninetyyears of production. Using many of Atterbury’s original moldes theyproduced the same lacy edge on their pieces and produced a host ofcolonial style wares in the 50’s and 60’s. Old Quilt along with Paneledand Beaded Grape graced millions of post-war homes.

Today production of milk glass has diminished. With EPA regulations the fluoride used in the process has made it all but impossible forAmerican companies to continue making milk glass.