Collecting Ball Canning Jars

I've always loved blue canning jars and I have picked them up at

thrift stores and even in the auction trash.

But last week I actually bid on two boxes of them!

I knew they were older than most in my collection,

mainly due to the zinc lids.

The roots of the Ball Glass Manufacturing Co. go back to 1880,

when Frank and Edmund Ball of Buffalo, New York,

purchased the Wooden Jacket Can Co.

Originally the brothers manufactured metal cans wrapped in wood,

but when John L. Mason's 1858 patent for a fruit canning jar expired,

the brothers prepared to move into glass.

By 1884 the first Ball jars as we think of them today were produced,

and in 1888 furnaces were fired at a new plant in Muncie,

Indiana.  Between 1888 and 1961, the company

made more than 41 million canning jars, which is just one reason why

 the words "Ball" and "Mason" are virtually synonymous today.

When I got them home and took a closer look at them, I realized

how much I didn't know about the logos!

And I'd never seen one with a well in the lip to hold wax, like the one

above that says Pittsburg, PA on it.

I love the ones that have bubbles in the glass!

And I found out that grey and olive green glass is more rare than blue. 

 One identical to that little squatty olive one sold online for $88!

The prices range quite high!

Would you believe I only paid $4.25 each for these!?

I found this chart very helpful!

It's hard to believe that any jars from the 1800's are still intact today!

Any glass used in the kitchen in a utilitarian

way has much more of a chance of being broken.

It's amazing that there are any around 130 years later!

info from collectorsweekly.com and balljars.net

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