Text by Bethany Adams
“I’ve always loved color,” says milk glass enthusiast and vintage collector Lauren Sakalarios. Step into her living room—affectionately referred to as the “Lady Lounge”—and it won’t take long for you to believe it. Sparked by of a pair of candlesticks gifted to her in 2007, her current collection of vibrant vintage milk glass now comprises over 200 pieces—a number that only continues to grow.
“It was a set of blue milk glass candlesticks that my grandmother bought me,” she explains. “We were at an antiques store together, and I saw them and was instantly attracted to the blue color.” For a while, that was the end of it—but around 2015, Lauren began to seek out more pieces online, and she quickly realized that, in addition to a wide range of blue hues, there were plenty more charming colors to choose from.
While the production of milk glass dates back to the 1600s, with especially coveted pieces coming out of the Victorian era, collections like Lauren’s veer from the ubiquitous white glass to showcase the personality of American-made creations from the 1940s and ’50s. “I had a lot of bidding wars with somebody from New York for a lot of these pieces,” Lauren says of her early days collecting. “And I lost a lot of pieces, too.”
But she won plenty as well, and the fruits of her labor now line the built-ins that she specifically designed to house her collection. “I did this whole wall because I wanted to always be able to see it,” she says.
Some of her more prized possessions include a biscuit jar and a variety of pieces in harder-to-find shades of pink and green. And while she’s managed to amass a variety of vases in Fenton’s popular Daisy and Button pattern, she’s still on the hunt for a bowl featuring the same pattern in her signature blue.
Although some collectors of milk glass seek out pieces based on the manufacturer or rarity, Lauren’s approach is simple. “If it pleases me, I want it,” she says. “There are just certain pieces that draw me in, and that’s what I collect.” And while beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, in this case, it’s also on full display.
For more information, visit @lalasaks on Instagram.
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