Dating Jars

[cgillilan]

Inquiring minds want to know (mine anyway) how do you tell the date of a bottte/jar if it is not on the item? I'm not a collector or diver/digger, not that I wouldn't want to be, but I come across some. Like I have several of the Canadian fruit jars and it appears there are dates on the bottom but so did the jar with 1873 on it, that is a candy jar. The seam does not go thru the lip so I thought it would be dated pre 1900.

 

[bobclay]

Hi cgillian,

"Generally" speaking, most pre 1900 jars are hand blown and would have a ground lip. Machine made jars have a smooth pressed glass lip and give or take a few years, started appearing around the turn of the century. There are many jars with patent dates embossed on them, but they are just that, a patent date for something pertaining to that jar or closure and not pertaining to when they were made. Jars with the 1858 patent date were produced for well over 50 years with that date embossed on them.

Some of the Canadian jars do have the year of manufacture embossed on them, but the majority of American made jars do not. (some of the Kerr jars have the year of manufacture embossed in the thread area) The 1/2 pint and pint clear wire bail jars that have 4 stars around the shoulder were made in the mid 1980s and later and have been seen containing candy, bath salts, potpourri and other things. The dates on their bases range from 1776 to the late 1890s and are there for unknown reasons.

Judging the age of bottles and jars requires a lot of research in most cases, but in some instances, we can narrow a range down to just a few years, based upon what we already know about many of the old jar companies and their histories.

Bob Clay

 

[bottleboy311]

[8|]Oh figuring out how old jars are ........ not taking your jar to dinner and a movie.


[8D]I was looking to Date a Jar.


[]I'm wanting to take a Canadian Beaver to the Prom.


[&o]Sorry. Guess I'm in the wrong fourm.

 

[capsoda]

HA!HA!HA!HA! Now your getting the hang of it Lee. That was funny stuff.[sm=lol.gif]