Milk Glass

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 color 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 colors in opaque glass.