Busy Friday

We are so very busy today so I thought instead of my normal post, I would share a bit of one of my collections with you.

I’m not at all sure where this fascination with farm life came from, but it’s been with me since my very first married days.

Calvin and Bessie were the first to grace my home…..my bovine pair made my kitchen look so homey and sweet. They’ve always graced my kitchen wherever we have lived.

My milk glass bottles started with an old milk bottle found under my Great Grandmother’s home before it was demolished. I realized before long that I would really like to have more milk bottles so here and there I would find one and purchase it. Then came the new found interest in old milk bottle caps. I was overjoyed to find some milk bottle caps from the same dairies as my bottles! What luck!

Over time, my cow collection has grown (thanks Christy!). I have cows sprinkled here and there all over my home.

Years since my first cows, my interests have turned a bit, (I’ll try to post an additional picture later) now I’m in love with milk glass!! I have several pieces…my favorites are my hobnail creamer and sugar bowl and my candlestick holders.

I have great memories of my Great Grandmother’s milk glass candy dish (always holding those old peppermint sticks) sitting in her home. After my love of cows, I guess this could only be the next natural transition.

Milk lass Trivia:

(From Glass Encyclopedia)

Milk Glass is a term used by glass-makers for opaque white glass. The German term is milch-glass, the Italian term is lattimo (from latte, milk) and the French term is blanc-de-lait (milk white) or verre-de-lait. Milk glass looks like white porcelain. It was first made in Venice in the 14th or 15th century, and later in just about every country that made glass. The opaque white colour is usually made with tin oxide. During the 17th and 18th centuries it was very popular, and during that period it was often decorated with enamel painting. Semi-opaque white glass was also made using ashes of calcined bones, and this kind of glass is called by names such as opal, opaline, or milk-and-water glass. During the 19th and 20th centuries a great deal of pressed, opaque, white glass was made, and this was often given names like vitro-porcelain (in England) or porcellein-glass (in Germany). This is the kind of white glass that is usually collected by milk glass collectors. The same manufacturers often made other colors in the same patterns, especially blue, and this has given rise to some glass experts applying the term “milk glass” to other colours in opaque glass.

Things I would love to add to my collection:

an old dairy sign
milking stool (instead of a step stool for my kitchen)
milk glass hen candy dish
cows are always welcome….figurines, though I would love to have a few of the living kind! 🙂

Paul has learned that this is something that he really shouldn’t question ….I think he already knows I’m not exactly sure why I love them so much. I guess, I am just a country girl at heart.


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