The Colours Of Spring......

With the 1st day Of Spring we thought you would like to share some of our favourite photos taken whilst on various trips both here & the Pacific Islands......

Vintage mason jars

We love our vintage mason jars...and it appears you all do too! Our mason jars are selling quickly and we are running low on these popular items. We have in stock the beautiful clear glass Ball and Atlas lidded jars. These jars come in both the pint and quart size and are popular to use in displays, for party functions or simply around the home. As these jars are some of our most popular and sought afer product be quick to place your order to avoid disappointment.

A Brief History of Home

Canning Jars

Atlas Jars, Ball Jars, Kerr Jars, Mason Jars

Up until 1858, glass canning jars used a flat tip tin lid held in place by sealing wax. However, in 1858 John L. Mason, came up with the idea of a screw top lid. He invented a machine that could cut a thread into a zinc lid and the jar was than manufactured with a molded thread on the top – the result, the first screw top lidded jar with a rubber seal – the Mason Jar. These jars carry the embossing ‘Mason’s Patent Nov, 30^th 1858’. This date refers to the patent date, not the date of manufacture, and these jars were made up until the 1910’s.

In 1882 came the clamed glass lid jars – invented by Henry Putnam of Vermont. These became known as ‘ lightening jars’ because of their ease of use and were common up until the 1960’.

Atlas Jars had a ‘lightening jar’ known as the Atlas E-Z Seal. The major advance they made to the manufacture of canning jar was the development of the ‘strong shoulder’ – a raised lip to prevent cracking of the jar. The Hazel-Atlas Glass Co operated from the late 1800’s until 1964.

Ball Jars were manufactured by the five Ball brothers, first in Buffalo and then in Muncie, Indiana. Soon after their operation began, they started acquiring smaller companies throughout the US and quickly became the market leaders in the industry.

Kerr Jars came onto the market in 1903 when Alexander H Kerr founded the Hermetic Fruit Jar Company. They were the first to manufacture a wide-mouth jar for easy fitting – a product Ball was swift to emulate.

Many other companies made glass canning jars over the years and can still be found today. Some of these jars are the Root Fruit jar – 1906 to 1909,  the Crown jar – a Canadian company, the Foster Sealfast jar – 1908 to 1925, the Drey jar – 1917 to 1925, the Presto jar – late 1920’s to the 1940’s, the Duraglas jar – 1940’s to 1960’s and the Know jar – made in the 1940’s to name a few.

Colours

Canning jars came in many and varied colours, with the aqua blue (or green) and the clear, the most common colours. The green is due to the iron in the sand used to make the glass, while less oxygen in the fire caused the glass to turn blue-green or blue. The clear glass jars are made by adding chemicals (clarifying agents) to the batch to turn it from blue-green to clear.

Coloured jars are generally worth more as there were fewer of them made and they are in greater demand by collectors.

Ball blue glass was only made until 1937. The deeper blue, dark green and amber shades of Ball Mason jars are among the rarer colours and thus are valued more highly.

Some of the darker coloured jars were made with the intention to keep out light to help preserve the fruit. However, these colours were not popular with consumers, as it was more difficult to see the contents of the jar.