Crown Milano and Albertine
Crown Milano and Albertine
Painting and enameling was by no means a novel means of decorating opal glassware in the nineteenth century, but by giving it an exotic name lke "Crown Milano" the Mt. Washington Glass Company was able to arouse enough interest in enameled opal glassware to warrant its production on a large and profitable scale.
The most famous piece of ancient painted opal glass is the Daphne Vase which dates from about the third century A.D. The sixteenth-century Venetians produced an opaque milk-white glass which they also decorated with colorful enamel designs. In the eighteenth century, English, Continental, and Chinese glass manufacturers were producing opaque white enameled glasswares imitating in form the "Blanc de Chine" porcelains of the period.
By mid-nineteenth century, painting white opal glass with a mat ground or finish was quite a common practice in some Bohemian, English and French factories. American enterprise, more specifically that of Albert Steffin and Frederick Shirley, brought decorated opal glass to the pinnacle of elegance in our country.
Most Crown Milano was produced with a blank of white opal glass, either free-blown, pattern-molded, or pressed, was first given a bisque finish with the aid of an acid-roughing dip. To this mat-finished surface enamels were applied, fairly thin in consistency except on those parts where a raised design was desired.
Crown Milano
The colors most often used were soft shades of beige, brown and pink, but vividly colored items like the covered rose jar and the rare creamer shown in our illustrations are also to be found. Applied glass decoration in the form of ornate handles, finials, and prunts of different descriptions are not unusual in this ware.
The Mt. Washington mark for Crown Milano consisted of the block letters "C" and "M" arranged as a mongram and in connection with the representation of a crown - the crown being placed above the monogram.
Crown Milano
In some cases the crown could be omitted entirely, while the essential feature, the monogram "CM," would always be in evidence. The monogram "CM" was not limited to articles of opal glassware.
Emulating "Crown Milano," Mt. Washington Glass Company also made "Albertine", a body glass of white opal, and enamel decoration in soft muted shades of beige, pink and green with accents of gold and white enamel.
In 1887, A.H. Mews and Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts, produced pottery blanks in plain bisquitware for decorators which they named "Albert" or "Albertine Ware."
Soon after Pairpoint Manufacturing Company of New Beford, Massachusetts, took over the Mt. Washington Glass Company, in 1894, they issued an illustrated catalog of their combined wares - silverplated objects and art glass. Crown Milano, Albertine and Royal Flemish pieces with silverplated mounts and fixtures were shown alongside other decorated opal glass articles that were almost exactly the same in appearance.
Albertine
These similar wares were identified in the catalog as "Decorated Porcelain," "Dresden Decorated," "Royal Worcester," and "Colonial Decorated." This would explain why so many pieces of Mt. Washington's decorated opal wares that appear to be Crown Milano or Albertine do not bear these identifying marks.
 ANTQ MELON MT WASHINGTON LIBBEY CROWN MILANO OPEN SALT  US $80.75
|
 RARE MT WASHINGTON CROWN MILANO ART GLASS CRACKER JAR US $1,295.00
|
About 1896 the Pairpoint Manufacturing Company produced decorative china using blanks purchased from a pottery in Limoges, France. These wares were marked with a crown and laurel wreath and sold under the name "Crown Pairpoint Ware." The same mark can be found on shiny and mat-finished opal glasswares with decoration almost identical to those found on Crown Milano wares. The 1909 edition of Trade Marks of the Jewelry and Kindred Trades listed the "Crown Pairpoint Ware" mark as "discontinued" - apparently it was no longer in production in 1909.
Source: Nineteenth Century Glass - It's Genesis and Development
