And second is this weird Kerr 65th anniversary jar with a black or grey streak. Anybody familiar with this one, can only find info on blue or green streaks, or gold painted. Any enlightenment is appreciated! -Tammy
I'm very pleased to see that picture of the Kerr Anniversary jar.
I am sure I have told the story here on ABN about my participation in the making of these jars. I mentioned that there were some attempts to make amethyst swirled jars along with the Cobalt and Green ones, this verifies the stoty as few people know they exist.
What you have there is FAR, FAR rarer than the others and an excellent example, most were far lighter and less pronounced. Treasure that, I very possibly owned it at one time.
Thanks for the info Jim, I was thinking maybe this was a gold-painted jar with all the gold paint scrubbed off. Far less intriguing. Do you have any idea how many were made? Did they get anything closer to purple? -Tammy
Anniversary was 1968. The failed amethyst and a few other attempted colors were mostly the ones used to paint gold colored. Some had little to no color, some of the better but still "ugly" ones were pirated off the line by the Quality Control Manager, my next door neighbor, who gave them to me. This may have been one of those. They were never meant for public consumption. Only a few dozen were termed "failures", most of those got painted gold. I was part of the Fruit Jar Collectors club that was present at the making of these jars but having Ray Gentry, the Q.C.M., as a neighbor was a plus. I got lots of neat stuff from him as well as personal guided tours of the plant rather frequently.
I'm looking for any information on 12 Kerr canning jars, 65th Anniversary, (5) with blue streaks, (5) with green/ green blue streaks, (1) light weird purple or rose color and one glass blob with blue streaks that never became a jar.( The little branch stamp is clearly visible and you can see where the letters were starting to form)
I purchased hundreds of Kerr canning Jars from an estate sale in Santa Ana, CA. Not knowing much about jars, I posted them on Craigslist to make a small profit. While organizing the jars for easy transport, something told me to open this one particular box and I was excited to find these cool looking jars. Of course, now this meant I had to go through every box to make sure I didn't sell "the cool ones".
In my opinion, I'm rather proficient in researching things I come across before I sell them. Well, I started three days ago and I must say it hasn't been very easy finding anything about these jars. Your post has enlightened my knowledge about these jars, but has also created much mystery.
One last strange thing, my Grandmother Kathriene Reison/Shroudle used to work for Kerr, she past away when I was 6.
Since they are so obscure, do you think anyone would ever buy them?
Thank you for your time
You have a treasure, those jars are worth a fair amount of money and do have some historical, albeit recent, value as well. I don't have time at this moment, it is midnight and I'm getting sleepy, but I can fill you in on the entire story if you like.