The first bottle I unpacked was one of the larger ones.
It had a good weight in my hand, a nice solid beginning. And yes, there was a brand mark to provide a direction for research! I’m sure they won’t all be this easy to identify, but it’s off to a great start.
This is a Foster Sealfast fruit canning jar. Fun fact/confession; when Mom described them as bail jars, I always heard “Ball” jar. Because in my infinite wisdom Ball was
the canning jar, not just a brand of. Sigh, it’s a case for the saying “we live and we learn.” I have learned now that the wire closure is known as the bail. This particular bail is not rusty, and would probably work just fine if I had a lid to put on top. Maybe it’s yet to be unwrapped, waiting further on in the collection.
The jar itself is machine made, and (from internet research,) was probably from the glass factory in Marion Indiana from the 1910-20 timeframe. Really, the amount of history collection done and made available on the internet is just amazing to me. This jar is an ordinary specimen of the type so far, so now let me show you why I think it’s extraordinary.
It’s not perfect!
It has bubbles and warps and even what I call a birth mark from where the glass mold might have had a crack in it. It is delightfully unique! I am a staunch supporter of recycling unused items, but this one jar has shown me why something of little value is still of interest. Or can be, if you want to take the time to look for what makes it special. I particularly like the bubbles, since it reminds me of bubbles trapped in water. You probably don’t want to hear me enthuse on about bubbles, and there are lots more bottles in the collection, so we’ll be moving on shortly. Just one more thing to mention about this jar.
On the bottom it has a makers mark, which could denote which batch of jars it was in. This is a very frequent thing apparently, letters or numbers being the most common. I can’t decide if it’s a C or a G, and really it doesn’t matter either way…it’s just curious. In this picture it looks like a C, so unless someone says otherwise, that’s what we will say it is.
It’s not perfect!
Grammy had many of these in the cellar of her house in Breckenridge. They were usually filled with fruit and topped off with paraffin before the glass lid was put in place. This was not necessarily a good seal. One day Dad was sent down to get a jar of fruit intended for dessert. When he saw the condition of the jars, we spent the afternoon clearing the cellar with Grammy protesting the whole time! But we all lived as a result.
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