Westmoreland Glass Company has made many items in milk glass or opaque glass. The most obvious pieces are the Beaded Edge plates which were decorated with different motifs in the center, including fruits, flowers and song birds. These plates are prominently featured in books about either Westmoreland glass or about opaque glass.

The milk glass Westmoreland made also included other plates which are known for the most part by the motifs included in the pierced edges. There plates are generally for decoration only, as the holes in the plate rim makes them susceptible to leaking onto the table or tablecloth. Westmoreland opaque glass includes a plate with an all around rabbit and horseshoe motif. There are also border plates with a closed or an open lattice, a shell border, a flag, eagle and fleur-di-lys border, a leaf and loop border, and a beaded loop border. These plates may have different center designs commemorating historical events or anniversaries.

Other Westmoreland milk glass plates include the alphabet plate, with the alphabet embossed all around the plate rim, and the three bears plate and three kittens plate, where the upper area of the plate rim in molded into these subjects. Sometimes these plates have the molded motifs picked out in enamel paints to make them clearer to the viewer.

Outside of milk glass plates, Westmoreland is the source of opaque glass dolphin candlesticks, spiral candlesticks, double English hobnail candlesticks and covered dishes, and a dolphin compote with shell bowl, among other pieces of milk glass. The company’s regular lines called Old Quilt and Doric Border were also produced with pieces in opaque glass, and no doubt other patterns were as well. Della Robia goblets, Maple Leaf, Swan and Cattail, Palm Tree, Lily of the Valley, Cornucopia, and Iris are among the patterns produced, perhaps exclusively, in opaque glass.

Milk glass is a popular material for making covered candy dishes, especially those made in the form of an animal on a nest or other form of bowl. Westmoreland’s covered dishes include a mule-eared rabbit on an unspecified base, a rabbit on diamond base with eggs (reproduced by Fenton in pearlized milk glass with pastel painted eggs), a lion on a Lace Edge box, a robin in a nest on a tree branch (in 24 colors), a standing rooster, the resting camel, a hen on a two handled basket, and a rooster on diamond base. Westmoreland also produced Santa Claus on a sleigh, which is now being reproduced by Summit Art Glass in many colors and treatments. The original had a red coat and hat, with green leaves on side of sleigh.

Due to the Westmoreland Specialty days, when the company produced plain and fancy white jars with metal or glass lids containing different food stuffs, there are many additional covered jars to be collected. These include grape and cherry sugar and creamers with lids, some of which have been reproduced and/or colored. Westmoreland also made wedding bowls, used to hold the bride and groom’s pieces of cake before the cake cutting, in a number of established patterns and other motifs.

For other animal themed Westmoreland products, there is a duck open salt, an owl w/spread wings toothpick, and the Three Swans toothpick and vase. One continually popular piece was named the Queen Victoria’s Hands tray, which was produced from the 1930s until the closing of the company, in green milk, blue milk, almond, coral and white milk glass.

Westmoreland opaque glass comes in milk glass, caramel slag, white carnival glass (which has been reproduced) as well as the green, blue, almond, and coral mentioned above.

Much of this information comes from Collector’s Encyclopedia of Milk Glass Identification & Value Guide, Betty & Bill Newbound, Collector’s Books, 1995.

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