Almost all of the moulds for the 3-L type jars were hand cut so there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of slightly differing varients. It would be impossible to list them all, and even harder to try to describe/name some of them. For example we have the "Billy" MASON, the "Balle" MASON, the "Balls" MASON, the "artistic loop" types, the "lazy L" types, and the "sperm underscore" to name just a few that actually have names attached to them. One could amass a pretty neat collection of the #234 or #193 jars alone. []
Bob
(edited) BTW, the first jar pictured is one called the "artistic loop", with the little upstroke that flattens out prior to starting the loop.
The "sperm jar" or "sperm underscore" is the name assigned to a particular embossing by the NC collector that reported it first to Granny Kath many years ago. Basically, the final l isn't connected to the loop or underscore and makes the underscore and loop look like a sperm.
I've seen them in aqua and blue and here's a couple shots of a real pretty honey amber one I had:
For pure eye appeal, that quart was probably the prettiest I had. The amber pint was the one that just killed me when I had to sell and was one of the last to go. Here are some nice quart Balll MASON jars:
The nearly black one in the center will most likely be coming up for auction again soon as a part of the Bettinghaus collection being dispersed by North American Glass Auctions, ie. Greg Spurgeon. The Bettinghauses bought many of my jars and it's been kinda nice seeing some "old friends" again when they come up for sale. []