For Collectors, the Milkman Cometh by Linda Rosenkrantz on Creators.com

Recently

FDR'S Fala and the Fad for Scotties There has been any number of well-known presidential pooches in modern history, including Richard Nixon's infamous spaniel, Checkers; LBJ's beagles, Him and Her; Gerald Ford's golden retriever, Liberty (much spoofed by Chevy Chase in the early days …Read more. The Yo-Yo Story The yo-yo, like many other things, has been around for so long that we tend to take it completely for granted, not thinking about how it originated or, for that matter, how it got its distinctive name. But now that the yo-yo is becoming something of …Read more. Recollecting and Collecting Mutt and Jeff Even today, more than a century after they entered the realm of popular culture, this comic-strip team's name is part of the common vernacular — put a tall guy and a short guy next to each other and they'll almost inevitably still be called …Read more. Ma Bell Collectibles What with land-line phones rapidly becoming an endangered species, it's not surprising that the standard phones of both the recent and distant past are evoking a large measure of nostalgia and growing interest among collectors. Not surprisingly, the …Read more.

For Collectors, the Milkman Cometh

You may have noticed that glass milk bottles are gradually reappearing on supermarket shelves, bringing them back into the modern era. But for people of a certain age, there is still no sound quite as nostalgic as the clink of milk bottles jangling up against one another. For several generations, the arrival of the milkman with his carrying cases of cream-topped bottles was the signal of a new day beginning — or the end of a late, late night as described in the lyrics of the old song "Lullaby of Broadway."

In the land of collectibles, they've never really gone away.

The oldest known glass milk bottle dates back to 1866, but the first to be patented was by the Warren Glass Works Company in 1880, and four years later, Dr. Hervey D. Thatcher — a Potsdam, N.Y., physician/pharmacist — introduced and patented the classic bowling pin-shaped milk bottle. In 1889, the Thatcher Company launched the type of bottle top that is still in use — a disposable cardboard cap held by a shallow rim inside the top of the bottleneck. Before that, they used a bail closure similar to those used on canning jars.

Although the majority of milk bottles have been made of clear glass, there are some colored types, which are eagerly sought after by collectors. These include the deep green Alta Crest Farms bottles and the amber Elm Dairy bottles.

There are also interesting variations of shape, some with pronounced necks, others with almost no discernible neck at all. In the 1930s, the necks were referred to by such colorful terms as "baby face" and "toothache." The round bottle was most popular until 1936, when a squatter round form was introduced, to be superseded in 1940 by a square squat bottle. And the familiar quart size was not universal — there were also gills (quarter pints), half-pints, 10-ounce bottles (a third of a quart), pints, half-gallons and gallons.

In the heyday of the glass milk bottle — roughly 1910 to about 1950, when paper cartons took over — there were several major producers, among them Lamb Glass Co.

of Mount Vernon, Ohio; Thatcher Glass Co. of New York; Owens-Illinois Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio; and Liberty Glass Co. of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. These company names are to be found embossed on the bottles, often accompanied by decorative devices — everything from patriotic stars, flags and eagles, to buildings, to the appropriate cows and milkmaids.

In order to increase sales, the pyroglazing method of applying paint onto glass was used to add lettering and illustrations. The larger companies employed a silkscreen type of application, then baked the paint on in a kiln at a low temperature. In addition to advertising the firm's logo, they displayed such images as Disney and other cartoon characters, patriotic symbols and slogans, babies and children, as well as safety and health slogans. In general, pyroglazed examples have two or three times the value of those that are simply embossed.

One item of particular interest is the Cop the Cream milk bottle designed by the three Gennaro brothers in 1938 and manufactured by the Universal Glass Company of Parkersburg, W.Va. These bottles, which were embossed and pyroglazed, had clearly articulated policemen's heads and, as a bonus, a mechanical "Cream Copper" — a cream separator — was supplied to each milk customer for 2 cents.

Many collectors seek out historic bottles used by local dairies; other specialties include restaurant creamers, early amber and green milk bottles, dairy jars, milk separators, goat's milk bottles, bottles with war slogans, square and other odd-shaped bottles, baby-topped milk bottles, metal bottle caps, milk bottle openers and dairy tokens, as well as all kinds of signs and other advertiques — Borden's Elsie the Cow is a particular favorite.

Linda Rosenkrantz has edited Auction magazine and authored 18 books, most recently "Beyond Ava & Aidan: The Enlightened Guide to Naming your Baby" (St. Martin's Press). Visit her baby names website at http://nameberry.com. She cannot answer letters personally. To find out more about Linda Rosenkrantz and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com