Fruit Jar - new collector question

[dcoffin5]

Hi All,
I'm reading thru the forum here and I'm a new collector. I've found a few fruit jars, nothing exciting yet (at least not that I know of!). I've just ordered the Red Book, and also a couple of older small books from eBay (Burris's book from like 30 yrs ago and the 2007 update of the "1000 Jars" book).

Anyway . . .
I'm supposed to go see a lady tomorrow about some fruit jars. She told me her grandpa passed away this past year, and in the basement there's 100's of fruit jars. The guy canned his own since around after WWII until a few years ago. So these would be modern jars. So I'm figuring not very collectable, right? I think some may be full still (yuck, or yum??). She told me a bunch of them are green glass, other than that I've got no info. The guy wouldn't use antique jars to can fruit, you think?

I've tried to educate myself a bit the last few days, but it's overwhelming info. What i could really use are a few 'hints' or guidelines. Can anyone give me a few quick clues if the jars are collectable? Any help appreciated. Right now my entire collection is like 50 bottles & only 2 of them are fruit jars. Tomorrow I may come home with 250 more. [8D]

 

[capsoda]

Welcome to the forum Dean. I never turn down a fruit jar but I have a soft spot for them. Sounds like they are pretty common but you can use them for canning or pick out what you want and sell the rest. I would mostly be interested in any books and utensils he may have had and used for canning. You may find some great go-withs and odd do-dads like crank apple pealers. I collect canning items and use many of them. The green jars are probably Ball Blue and there may be round and square jars. Also their may be coupon and ration books if he was canning during WW2.

Mostly go with what you like and want.

 

[Baydog51]

Don't spend much until you know what your doing. The Red Book will be a great guide for you. If you're looking at the jars quickly, I would suggest looking mainly at the non-clear jars that have a ground lip and are shoulder seal. Realize that most of these older jars don't generally have much value with exceptions. You can buy tons of 50 to 100 year old jars for $1 or $2 each.
My best advice would be to take photos of the older ones and post the pictures here for advice BEFORE buying them.

 

[cobaltbot]

If there are any half pint Ball Perfect Masons definitely get those.

 

[dcoffin5]

Thanks all. Good hints - i will use this info!
I'm heading over there to look and will let you know how I make out.

 

[cobaltbot]

Another thing, if you are a beginning collector and there are alot of the Ball Perfect Mason jars you might want to put together a set of mould number jars. On the base will be mould numbers from 0 to 14 and other numbers, etc. These are hardly worth anything but can be fun to put together a set and you will notice there are unlimited differences in embossing. Pick up any Perfect Mason with a 13 on the base just because people will pay over ten bucks for one of these <$1 jars, just because of a couple myths perpetuated about theses jars. Look for oddball colors of these commonly aqua or ball blue jars.

 

[ajohn]

How did ya do???

 

[dcoffin5]

I came home with some fruit jars, funny, I just knew that was gonna happen!

The lady of course thought that everything was real valuable, but I could tell right away that most of them must've been purchased in the 50's & 60's for home canning. Thanks Warren for the suggestion to ask about related material. She had a few pamphlets about 'how to can fruit' and I purchased those from her. Interesting reading! I can post pics of anything you folks think maybe interesting, here's a list. Price was $2.50 each & she has lots more of most of these if you see anything you want:

1. Ball Perfect Mason, Qt., aqua, weird looking "3" on bottom.
2. Ball Perfect Mason, Qt., aqua, large '5' on bottom. The embossing on "PERFECT" is very low compared to the "Ball" and the "MASON" except for the letter E which is high. weird.
3. Ball Perfect Mason, pint, aqua.
4. ATLAS strong shoulder mason, Qt. aqua, "10" on bottom.
5. ATLAS mason, large HA logo, Qt. clear, bottom is 'stempled' and 8 U 3. This one is on the front of pamphlet from Hazel Atlas. The other two pamphlets are from Kerr - but strangely there wasn't a single Kerr fruit jar to be seen. There were several packed away boxes (or else the guy gave away jars of fruit with all his Kerr's?)
6. Root MASON, qt.,aqua, bottom has an "O" or maybe it's an "Q". Didn't I read somewhere that Ball purchased this company at some point? She only had this one Root - unless they're hidden away in boxes.
7. WHITNEY MASON PAT'D 1858, I got two of these. Both are Qt. and aqua. One has nothing on the bottom, and has 5 dots under the word MASON. The other has no dots, and bottom shows "A".

All of these have zinc lids with ceramic insert (that is ceramic, right? or milk white glass?). I didn't notice until I got home, the Atlas have Ball lids. They seem to fit just fine, but if I go back I will try to get the correct lids. There was no shortage of lids, I just forgot to check that they were matched up correctly.
Here's a few photo's. Let me know if you want to see anything specific.

Whatcha think, I do ok? At least now I have a nice little start to a fruit jar collection!!

 

[dcoffin5]

Atlas Strong Shoulder

 

[dcoffin5]

Ball Perfect Mason - with the high & low embossing on "PERFECT"