Milk Bottles

Milk Bottles

Yes, I have a collection! Fifteen milk bottles. I didn't realize I had so many, until I put them all out. It all started with one I found in my grandfather's garage. It was from a local dairy. Then I got the brilliant idea to collect a milk bottle from all the different towns I have been in. It helped to narrow the field down for me. Of course I have a couple from my home town too. I try and make them useful by using them to hold knitting needles, pencils and scissors. And they make dandy vases!
Milk Bottles are very hard to date as the they didn't change that much. Milk first started being delivered in glass bottles about 1903, but didn't become wide spread until 1920's. There are two methods of marking a bottle; eembossed (the letters are a raised part of the glass) and pyroglazing (a method of "glazing" a paint on) first used in 1933. Two very informative sites are: http://www.sha.org/bottle/index.htm http://dairyantiques.com/Home_Page.html I haven't done to much research on them. They are such fun pieces of history. Some even have funny saying on them. "They Came to Visit not to Stay, Please Return our Bottles Every Day!"

 A local milk bottle
Park Avenue

Park Avenue

This is my new pink glass. Isn't it beautiful? If you remember this is one of the items I bought last weekend antique shopping. I have it on my dressing table so I don't have to traipse all the way downstairs to get a drink of water at night. Also I was tired of having a green plastic cup marring my decorating theme. The pictures captured the color wonderfully.
I didn't really know anything about the pattern or who made it, so I did a little research. The pattern is called "Park Avenue" made by the Federal Glass Co in the 1940s. The color is called "Ruby Flash". To make it ruby colored they had to put a thin layer of colored glass over clear glass and reheat or flash it to bond them. In the picture above you can see the company mark, an F in a shield.
I really love the color. Maybe I should start a collection of ruby glass...