Hi , I am not sure where to post this so please pardon me if it’s in the wrong forum . I have an SS Adam’s milk pitcher I purchased as a teen in 1974 . I used it a few times and carefully cleaned it and out it away . I also purchased another one mid 80s maybe and used it dozens of times . The gimmick from the one from 1974 recently turned a horrible color , looks like Coke a Cola color . I tried mixing baking soda and warm water to no avail . Can anyone kindly shed some light on this . Is it ruined from age ? Thank you & any advice is appreciated

Old post, so I hope you found a solution since then, but for the benefit of anyone else seeking out the same information I thought I'd toss out what I know about the subject (I have a particular fascination with tricky tumblers, gimmicked glasses and pitchers, used for various liquid effects)

In my experience once a celluloid or acetate gimmick starts to discolor or warp , there is no recovery. I believe it is some sort of chemical reaction that is irreversible. It also depends on the material it is made from. There are different varieties of what are commonly referred to as "celluloid" or "acetate". Some will discolor and/or buckle with age, others are in good shape even if they are 50 - 70 years old I don't really know why. Milk pitcher inserts seem to be especially prone to the discoloration -- I speculate this is from a chemical reaction the insert has with the "OOM" (oil of milk) over time. This is why the instructions usually emphasized thoroughly rinsing out the pitcher with warm,soapy water then rinsing it again with plain warm water (never hot water, which could loosen the seams). Even those who were diligent about always rinsing the pitcher after a performance could find theirs starting to discolor over the long run. I have other acetate gimmicks that are 50+ years old (not used with "OOM") that are still in good shape , and others of the same vintage that have discolored. So it's hard to predict which gimmicks will discolor and which will remain in good shape. I think once the chemical reaction that causes the discoloration sets in, it's time to start looking for a replacement, because it will only get worse over time.

Of course, at one time the milk pitchers made by magic companies like Adams , Ernadoe, Abbott, Townhouse, O'Dowd were quite common (they must have made tens of thousands of them over the years!) and it was easy enough to pick up a spare to be kept in storage, unused until needed. Sometimes a pitcher will show up on eBay as "new old stock" (old pitcher , but never used) which are still in pretty good shape. But that is less common as the years pass.

Most of them looked like this (this is the "Star" pitcher , made by the Anchor-Hocking Glass Co. I assume this is the style of pitcher you have)



There was a slightly larger "Star" pitcher that was sometimes used.



Those little squarish milk pitchers were the most common type in the 1950' - 1980's .


The original Richard Himber milk pitcher (1941) and Abbott's copy of Himber's (1940's) looked like this:



Mike O'Dowd also later made one using this style of pitcher. This is the style of pitcher shown throughout the illustrations in the well-known book by Hen Fetsch "Milk Pitcher Magic". That style of pitcher was the most common in the 1940's , then by the 1950's most had switched to using the smaller, squarish Anchor-Hocking "Star" pitcher. (Mike O'Dowd being the exception, who continued making the larger style pitcher into the early 1980's. O'Dowd also made the smaller style pitcher.) As far as I know , there is no one still manufacturing these glass pitchers. The problem is not finding a pitcher in this style (they still show up frequently on eBay , Etsy, and antique stores/flea markets) the problem is finding the necessary gimmick. No one makes them. They could be made with vacuum forming , but there's not enough of a demand to set up the minimum run required by most vacuum forming companies (at least 500 units). Someone who owns their own vacuum forming set up could do it.

If you get lucky you might find one of these old glass pitchers with a gimmick that is still in good, usable shape on eBay or a magic auction site. If you use it with OOM then always rinse with warm water with a few drops of Dawn detergent mixed in to the warm water , then rinse out again with plain warm water. Dawn is good at cleaning oily substances. Actually, no matter what liquid you use, the rinsing out with warm water and Dawn, then another rinse with plain warm water (never hot water!) is a good idea.

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The new pitchers available today are almost all made from acrylic and are generally less prone to the discoloration problem of celluloid or acetate, but it is still a good practice to thoroughly clean the container after each use.

Bazar de Magia Milk Pitcher Pro is a good one.
https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/amazin......her-pro/

Seo Magic's Milk Pitcher is also good -
https://www.seomagic-usa.com/product_inf......_id/2500

RonJo's Milk Tumbler is worth considering as an alternative to a pitcher -
https://www.ronjo.com/ronjo-ultimate-mil......101.html

Also Bazar de Magia's Deluxe Milk Glass is nice , although it is smaller than RonJo's , so not as visible at a distance.
https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/stage-......k-Glass/

I want to correct part of my post above, re: the original Richard Himber (and Abbott's copy) design. What I meant to write was that the original Himber pitcher had this sort of SHAPE (as in the photo above), but in fact the Himber pitcher introduced in 1941 used a popular Anchor-Hocking Glass Co. pitcher known as the "Pillar Optic" pitcher. The Pillar Optic pitcher had a ribbed design that made it more deceptive in terms of concealing what it needed to conceal.



Here is one I made using a green Anchor-Hocking Pillar Optic pitcher I found at an antique store. (they came in green, rose, blue, and clear versions) They show on eBay and other online stores:
https://www.replacements.com/crystal-anc......28565661



Anyway, my point was that the Himber pitcher (and the subsequent Abbott copy) was the type of pitcher most commonly used in the 1940's and is the type of pitcher that is seen in all of the illustrations in the book "Milk Pitcher Magic" by Hen Fetsch (1946).




This used to puzzle me a bit when I was young because my little square-ish milk jug (made by Enardoe) did not look at all like the pitcher in the book.

It was that square-ish version that Tony Curtis used in the movie "Houdini".

https://youtu.be/xsu7bvVn-FI