How to Date Old Ball Mason Jars with Pictures

Table Of Content

• We go Together Like Moonshine & Mason Jars - Customizable Tea Towels
• Fruit Fly Mason Jar Trap Fruit Fly Catcher Mason Jar Lid Kitchen Essential, Perfect Gift for Home & Garden
• Anchor Antiques
• Vintage Atlas E-Z Seal Blue Glass Canning Jar, Wire Clamp and Glass Lid, Fruit Jar, Preserves, Quart Size
• Vintage 1/2 Pint Ball Fruit Jar With Kraft Mustard Lid With Antique Marbles
• Aqua Blue Ball Fruit Jar
• Mason Jar Rings and Lids Organizer, Canning Jar Lid Organizer

There are about eight different logos in total, starting in the 1880s and finishing in the present day. The original logo, which looks nothing like the following logos, is basically unrecognizable today. Etsy is no longer supporting older versions of your web browser in order to ensure that user data remains secure. Also make sure to check out other great items from Choice, Vigor, Ball, Fox Run and Kerr.

We go Together Like Moonshine & Mason Jars - Customizable Tea Towels

In general, most fruit jars in aqua or “Ball Blue” glass marked “Ball Mason” date from before the introduction of the Ball Perfect Mason. (Clear jars marked “Ball Mason” were made in the 1960s and 1970s). For an extensive list of glass manufacturers’ marks on bottles, fruit jars, insulators, tableware and other glass items, please click here to go to the Glass Bottle Marks pages (page one).

Fruit Fly Mason Jar Trap Fruit Fly Catcher Mason Jar Lid Kitchen Essential, Perfect Gift for Home & Garden

But remember, with age, other factors like condition, rarity, and size, also impact the final value of an old mason jar. Sure Seal jars, or Sanitary Sure Seal jars, are another version of Ball lightning jars with wire bail. In most cases, an old Ball jar can be worth a decent amount if it’s in good condition. Defects like cracks, dents, chips, and broken or chipped edges greatly depreciate the value of a Ball mason jar. The manufacturer started the production of glass jars in 1884 in its iconic aqua “Ball Blue” color. Initially, the jars were hand-made, but after the introduction of the semi-automatic glass-making machine in the late 1890s, they were all machine-made.

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Anchor Antiques

I’ve noticed this through looking at the bases of hundreds if not thousands of typical Ball Perfect Mason jars while browsing at antique and collectible malls and flea markets over the last 20+ years. However, the mild scarcity, in my opinion is NOT REALLY STRONG ENOUGH to warrant the high prices which are often asked for these jars on online auction sites. Of course, value is a very subjective thing and many collectors may not agree with my opinion on this subject.

Overall, it seems the early 1900s jars fetch more than the most recent years, as expected. Whether you use them for home decor or canning, Mason jars are the most simple (and iconic) kitchen storage. Not only do they have a beautiful, timeless design, but they can even help save the world. You can even use a Mason jar lid to make the perfect breakfast sandwich. Send me exclusive offers, unique gift ideas, and personalized tips for shopping and selling on Etsy.

Vintage Atlas E-Z Seal Blue Glass Canning Jar, Wire Clamp and Glass Lid, Fruit Jar, Preserves, Quart Size

Personally, I think most of the stories are hogwash, although I wouldn’t doubt that it happened on a very occasional basis, and just often enough to provide impetus for an urban legend (rural legend?). Most myths and legends are based on a kernel of truth, and this may be no exception to the rule. (However, keep in mind that fruit jars cost money, and the average farmer or housewife, often continually stretched to the limit with their household budget, would have never destroyed a jar merely because of the number on the bottom). Most home canners would have paid little or no attention to the markings in the first place. Click here to see more mason jars with fruit design with free shipping included. Canning jars allow you to save various types of food for a long amount of time.

I believe that many if not most of those higher-numbered molds were replacement molds on the jar making machines. A number of “error jars” are found among the Ball Perfect Mason’s, including examples found with the embossing missing a letter (or letters), or with a word misspelled, such as “PERFFCT”,  “PEPRECT” or “PEREFCT”. 2) The newer jars (not always, but usually) tend to have a considerable number of micro-bubbles scattered through the glass, which is not seen in the old jars. The old jars might have a few isolated bubbles, but not lots of tiny bubbles throughout all of the glass.

A Ball jar made in the 1920s can also have a “1908” mark, so don’t use this number code to date the jar. The earliest Ball jars made prior to that had a unique mark featuring overlapping letters B,B,G,M, & Co (see the original logo in the chart), used from 1885 to 1886. After 1886, Ball Corporation used many different logos in different periods. Ball Perfect Mason jars were made utilizing steel molds as part of “ABM” (“Automatic Bottle Machine”) i.e. automatic glass container-making machinery.

Mason Jar Rings and Lids Organizer, Canning Jar Lid Organizer

The Owens scar is always present and virtually diagnostic on the original authentic jars. Instead, the base of the new jars is relatively smooth although there may be a faint, poorly defined mold seam. Found something you love but want to make it even more uniquely you? You may think of a Ball jar with a misspelled or distinctive name embossing as worthless.

Among these, most authentic Ball square mason jars, including the “SQUARE” jars, belong to the post-1920s era. Apart from the logo on the body, some antique Ball jars were also marked or embossed with numbers. According to the Ardagh Group website, they are made by that glass manufacturing company for distributor Jarden Home Brands. The great majority of the BPM jars were made in bluish-aqua or “Ball Blue” colored glass. (Ball Blue is the standard color of these jars, a somewhat “more blue” shade of aqua). Later versions,  after about 1936, were usually made in clear (colorless) glass, and some (usually from the 1950s) in brown amber.

Other colors are known,  but not so easily found, including cornflower blue, straw yellow, olive green, olive amber, blackish olive, dark yellow amber, light green and medium green. Some of these colors might be known under other/different names – depending on who is describing them! If you have the opportunity, you might try attending an antique fruit jar and/or bottle show, where some of these unusually colored jars may show up for sale or in displays.

However, do NOT mistake isolated bubbles and different color strikes or swirls as defects! Such manufacturing errors and rarities make the jar more valuable. 5) There is virtually no base wear, nor any light scratching on the surface of the glass which would normally be seen (at least slightly) on most old jars (although base wear can be faked). Lucky for us, this handy chart can help you keep track of all the Ball jar logos.

Ball Brothers also made many other styles of fruit jars, such as those marked “BALL IMPROVED”,  “BALL IDEAL”, “BALL MASON”, “BALL SPECIAL”, “BALL SURE SEAL”  and their “BALL STANDARD” (a type known as a “wax sealer” jar). Those other types of Ball jars are not discussed here as they deserve in-depth articles of their own. The Ball Perfect Mason was a brand of glass fruit jar (canning jar) made by the Ball Bros. (See  Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company  page, for a brief summary of that glass company). The BPM was the most popular brand of jar for home canning ever produced in the United States. Hundreds of millions (probably upwards of a billion or more!) were made, and these jars have been used by home canners throughout much of the 20th century.

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This antique mason jar has a ground lip with screw-top metal band closure and bears the earliest “B,B,G,M,Co” Ball logo. Among the different types of Ball mason jars that Ball Corporation made, some designs are quite rare and, hence, highly prized by collectors. On February 15, 1909, Kerr purchased the Altoona Co-Operative Glass Company of Altoona, Kansas (which had recently went bankrupt) and within a month or so KERR brand fruit jars were being produced at that location. But it only started adding the “Ball” logo on the surface (via hand-engraved molds) after 1886. Usually, older Ball mason jars manufactured between the 1880s and 1930s are worth more than the newer ones made post-1950s. That’s because the newer jars don’t display craftsmanship and are commonly found.

3) The weight of the new jars is very close to that of the old jars, but in many cases the newer jars are just slightly lighter in weight. As can be readily discovered, there were many different “sets” of molds used over a period of many years, with this same series of (up to) 16 numbers used over and over again to identify the molds being used on a particular machine.