Hobbies And Interests
Shape
Over the years, craftsmen and manufacturers such as Anchor Hocking, Fire King, Fenton, Atterbury &Company, Bryce Brothers, Gillinder &Sons and New England Glass Company designed--and many continue to design--pitchers of every conceivable shape (e.g. flat eight-paneled, short and rotund, long and graceful). The only design requirements are an open top through which to pour in the milk, an area to grasp the pitcher and a lip of some kind for properly pouring out the milk.
Decoration
The manufacturers of many pitchers made of milk glass (opaque glass) and Depression glass (poor quality, clear or colored translucent glass manufactured in the 1930s) pressed patterns with names such as waffle, weave and quilt into the glass. Hand-blown glass pitchers display hand-etched designs, pictures and insignias. Hand-painted flowers, fruit and animals decorate china pitchers such as finer Wedgwood. The most popular method of decorating pitcher exteriors, if they have a design at all, is a method called molded raised relief, which raises the design or picture above the surface of the glass. The most common patterns of this type of technique include grapes, grape leaves and grapevines.
Color
Along with a lack of design, many glass milk pitchers created for function are made of transparent, unadorned glass. Many other pitchers come in transparent colored glass of every imaginable color. Still others are made out of material such as milk glass that comes in opalescent opaque colors of white, blue, yellow, brown, black, green and pink. As mentioned earlier, the Wedgwood company hand-painted colorful designs on its china milk pitchers. Carnival glass (iridescent glass frequently given as prizes at early 20th-century carnivals and fairs) milk pitchers come in colors with names such as amethyst raspberry, marigold, amethyst, cobalt blue, white, ice blue, green, lime green and ice green.
Textures
Exteriors of glass milk pitchers have various textures. The smooth exterior of clear glass allows both the milk on the inside and the condensation on the outside to be the visual attraction. Hobnail, a technique that results in knobs or bumps over all or part of the exterior of a pitcher, makes the pitcher easier to carry, as well as decorative.
Overshot, a method of rolling hot liquid glass in glass shards and removing the sharp ends after the pitcher cools down, creates a piece that reflects the surrounding light.
Another interesting glass-making process (called casing) unites two or more layers of glass of contrasting colors, creating art-quality pitchers. Pre-cut, cut glass and frosted only begin to describe some of the other techniques that glass craftsmen and manufacturers utilize.
Size
Glass milk pitchers range from 3 ¾ inches to 11 ½ inches tall. Pitchers taller than that are water pitchers, while those 3 inches and under are considered creamers.