A Timeless Craft: The Story of Milk Glass

Milk glass is an opaque, translucent glass—usually white but sometimes tinted—that has been prized for centuries for its soft, porcelain-like appearance. First developed in 16th-century Venice, artisans discovered that adding certain minerals to molten glass produced a milky effect that mimicked expensive ceramics. The technique spread across Europe, where manufacturers and glassmakers adapted it to their own styles and methods.

During the 19th century, milk glass surged in popularity. The Victorian era embraced its refined look for household items: tableware, vases, lamp shades, and even ornamental tiling. Its resilience and ability to be either blown or pressed into intricate shapes made it ideal for mass production as well as for bespoke, hand-crafted pieces. Factories in France, England, and later the United States—most notably companies such as Fenton and Westmoreland—produced a wide array of forms and patterns that are now collected for their historic and aesthetic value.

Milk glass was not restricted to plain white. Manufacturers experimented with colorants to create soft pastels and unusual hues—greens, yellows, peaches, and blues—alongside more vivid variations. Some pieces incorporate translucent layering and iridescent finishes, while others are molded with detailed motifs ranging from floral garlands to geometric patterns. These variations expanded milk glass’s appeal, allowing it to inhabit both modest household kitchens and elegant parlors.

Today, milk glass remains popular among collectors and decorators. Antique and reproduction pieces appear in vintage shops, auctions, and interior design schemes that favor retro or cottage-core aesthetics. Conservation and authentication have become more sophisticated; collectors look for maker’s marks, seams from pressed production, and signs of hand-blown craftsmanship to determine age and value.

For those who explore coastal sites such as Seaham beach in northeast England, fragments of milk glass occasionally wash ashore—commonly in green and yellow hues linked to earlier production runs. Rarer finds, such as peach, blue, or red fragments, are highly prized by beachcombers and collectors. Whether appearing as a delicate Victorian vase or a small beach-found shard, milk glass connects us to centuries of craftsmanship and changing tastes. In contemporary design, milk glass is celebrated for its recyclability and ability to complement both minimalist and eclectic interiors, proving its enduring versatility.
A Timeless Craft: The Story of Milk Glass

History of glass packaging

Glass is virtually inert and impermeable, making it the most stable of all packaging materials. There is no risk of harmful chemicals getting into the food or drinks that are packed in glass. In the Neolithic period (Early Stone Age), about 7000 BC, people were using glass as a tool. They recognised the outstanding properties of the naturally formed glassy rocks.

In Mesopotamia master craftsman discovered how to make glass in the third millennium BC. From Mesopotamia and Egypt, glassmaking using the basic soda-lime-silica composition travelled to Phoenicia, along the coast of present-day Lebanon. From there the art spread to Cyprus, Greece, and, by the 9th century BC, the Italian peninsula. The oldest unopened wine bottle in the world was found in Speyer, Germany, dating back 1,700 years.

Romans invented air blowing rods, which facilitate the production of glass packaging. Near the beginning of the Christian era, the Phoenicians learned how to blow glass with a blowing iron. From the 11th century on, Venice became the centre of glassmaking in the Western world. The glassmakers there, the "phioleri di Murano", achieved unimagined heights of craftsmanship, especially in the production and processing of pure crystal glass.

Until the Middle Ages the use of glass was in the hands of a privileged few, who kept their composition and manufacturing secret. Glass became an object of luxury used both for decoration and for the conservation, transport and storage of food, medicines, oils, etc.

Most glass bottles in history were either opaque or coloured. But in the late Middle Ages people living in southern Germany, Switzerland and part of Italy created clear glass container.

Glass workshops were first established in the 16th century and that their development continued until the 19th century. In the 17th century, English businessman George Ravenscroft discovered how to produce lead glass at large scale. The production of glass packaging at workshops began in 1870.

In the United States, large-scale production of bottles was pioneered by Caspar Wistar in 1739 at his New Jersey plant. In the 1770s the carbonation process for producing soft drinks was developed, and so began an entirely new bottling industry.
History of glass packaging

Packaging for drinks in history

Packaging came about as a method of preservation in the pre-historic era. Packaging plays an important role in the quality of products by providing protection from environmental, chemical, and physical challenges.

The first types of packaging were made of natural materials – skins of fruits, gourds, carved wood, and hides. Animal skins were also a good option for tying up food and hitting the road.

The first evidence of pottery and glass being made was about 7000 BC., yet industrialization of the process by the Egyptians was not seen until about 1500 BC. The ancient Egyptians were the first to “industrialize” a food/water container by developing glass water pots. The pots were colored and it wouldn’t be for another 500 years until glass makers could produce transparent glass.

The newest packaging developments were tin cans about 150 years ago, and plastic about 75 years ago. Metal cans were initially manufactured for snuff, later were used in the canning operation that was discovered by Nicholas Appert when he answered a challenge from French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to develop a method to preserve food for his army. He proved food could be preserved for an extended time by boiling it at high temperatures and then sealing it in glass containers.

Appert used glass bottles with corks secured with wire as a closure to contain food while heating. British inventor and merchant Peter Durand quickly took this idea and demonstrated it could be used with a tin can.

Bottling was a manual or semi-manual operation until the first decade of the century, when the fully automatic manufacture of glass bottles started, or in other words, after Michael Owens had built his famous bottle making machine.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the bottling lines have developed with a speed that is almost beyond imagination - to wash, rinse, dry, fill, close and label more than 16 bottles a second, almost without physical labour.

The first beverage can (tin-plated steel) was made by Krueger Beer in 1935. Until then, beverages were only available in glass bottles. Soda soon joined beer inside cans.

Paperboard was first used to manufacture folding cartons in the early 1800s. Corrugated boxes that today are widely used as a shipping container to hold a number of smaller packages were developed in the 1850s.

Plastics including cellulose nitrate, styrene, and vinyl chloride were discovered in the 1800s but were not used in any packaging until well into the 20th century.

The use of plastics in beverage packaging has continued to increased due to the low cost of materials and functional advantages (such as thermo-sealability, microwavability, optical properties, and unlimited sizes and shapes) over traditional materials such as glass and tinplate.

One part of a package that was patented in 1892 played a significant role in the development of the beverage industry. William Painter, the founder of what today is Crown Holdings, Inc., patented the crown cork. This was a metal cap that had a layer of cork inside that gave a good seal against the top of a glass bottle.

In 1959 the beverage can get its modern update when Coors introduced the aluminum can (less costly than tin).
Packaging for drinks in history

A Brief History of Food Packaging: From Ancient Times to the Present Day

For millenniums, the most common material used to protect goods were paper and glass. People understood the role of package as meant to protect their product on the way home from market.

Egypt seems to have pioneered food packaging. Mummies were packed with all articles of daily use including food. Egypt was one of the first countries to have used paper (from Papyrus plant).

It is also known that Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians and Turks made bottles by inflating liquid glass in the years B.C. 3000.

There are references how paper was in rise for packaging food as well (that included vegetables and spices). In the prehistoric times, however, only natural materials were available and used for packaging which included leaves, animal skin, bark, coconut shells and dried vegetable skins etc. These materials have been used since the earliest times for domestic storage and local sales of foods. However, with the exception of glazed pottery, they have poor barrier properties and are only used to contain foods and keep them clean.

Subsequently, baskets of reeds, wooden boxes, wooden barrels, woven bags, etc. came into use. Pottery vases, water storage containers came later. Since the early ages of history, people have used packaging to consume, preserve and transport food.

The use of tinplate for packaging dates back to the 18th century. The first corrugated box was produced commercially in 1817 in England. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing he could make prefabricated paperboard boxes.

The years 1930–1940 were probably the most important decade in the history of plastics as today’s major thermoplastics (PS, PVC and the poly-olefins) were developed.

The use of plastics in food packaging has gone up several folds during the last two to three decades owing to the several advantages offered by them as compared to other materials.

Packaging advancements in the early 20th century included Bakelite closures on bottles, transparent cellophane over wraps, that increased processing efficiency and improved food safety. Aluminum and plastics were also incorporated later.

Traditional packaging couldn't stand the rigors of World War II which led to Military Standard or tough "mil spec" (military specifications) in the 1940s. In the middle of 1940s, further study of synthetic polymers by DuPont chemists synthesized polyethylene terephthalate (known as PET) used for manufacturing of plastic bottles until this day.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) revolutionized food packaging. It has excellent resistance to chemicals (acids and bases), grease, and oil; good flow characteristics; and stable electrical properties. It formed a seal without clinging to itself, food or to the container. It has low permeability to oxygen, water vapors and flavors, however there have been concerns about its toxicity.

The manufacturing technology changed the whole concept of packaging after the Industrial Revolution in eighteenth century when manufacturers were forced to develop more resilient types of protection so the products could be transported from factory to shop and later to customer’s home. In 21st century food packaging has evolved as a specialized industry.

A Brief History of Food Packaging: From Ancient Times to the Present Day 

History of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)

Modified atmosphere packaging can be defined as an alteration in the composition of gases in and around fresh produce by respiration and transpiration when such commodities are sealed in plastic films.

Much of original work was done in Australia and New Zealand when beef and lamb carcasses were shipped in the 1930s to the UK was stored in carbon dioxide to help maintain freshness.

During the 1940s and 1950s fresh apples and pears were placed in enclosed warehouse. The natural respiratory activities of the fruit reduced the oxygen and increased the carbon dioxide within storage areas sufficiently to slow respiration markedly.

The stored apples or pears could be consumed as much as six months after the original harvest: and extensions of about double the normal chilled storage shelf-life.

In the 1970s, modified atmosphere packages were used for some retail packs of meat and fish. The new techniques have been developed, including micro-perforation, anti-fogging layers to improve product visibility.

The use of modified atmosphere packaging technology received a significant boost when the retail chain of Marks and Spencer introduced a wide range of fresh MAD meat products in the UK in 1981.

Today, modified atmosphere packaging is used to package anything from fresh salads or individual meat portions, to sandwiches and snacks.

History of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)

Invention of two piece aluminium cans by Coors Brewery

The 1950s was the era of tuna casseroles and tinned soup; cooking dinner for the family form canned and packaged food was a hallmark of the suburban lifestyle, and a can opener was an essential tool in the modern kitchen.

The first canned beer was sold in Richmond, Virginia, in January 1935 when G. Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey and American Can cooperatively released the new 12 fluid ounce package.

When Coors Brewery of Golden Colorado made the first two-piece aluminium can, nearly all beverage cans, as well as many similar types of food containers, are manufactured through the operation known as drawing and ironing, sometimes referred to as D&I process. It was first marketed by Coors Brewing in 1959 via an association with ‘Primo’ a Hawaiian brewery.

Beverage cans for soft drinks and beer are called ‘two piece’ cans because the complete container actually consists of two separate portions. Coors company was founded in Colorado by Adolph Coors, a German immigrant who left the Old World in hopes of one day owning his own brewery.

The Coors Company, held the rights to the production of this new liquid container, but rather than produced cans for the entire market’s demand, Coors Container Co. sold the patent to other packaging production companies including Continental Can Co. and American Can Co.

Then Coors Brewing Company attracted a cult following by selling beer in seven-ounce aluminium cans, instead of conventional twelve ounce settee cans.
Invention of two piece aluminium cans by Coors Brewery