What should we know about antique canning jars

Antique glass canning jars come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors and because of this a lot of people collect them or use them in order to make gifts or to display and organize certain items.

 

Antique canning jars were used by all the women in order to preserve vegetables, fruits, jams and jellies for their family to eat during the winter. The jars were made of glass and this why they just had to clean them and use them again. Because of this, the jars were usually handed down from generation to generation.

 

In the United States canning jars appeared in the 1840s. At that moment there were a few types of canning jars that were used by women:

• wax sealers - these were the first antique canning jars and in order to create a tight seal, women used sealing wax: they melted the wax ant they poured it into one of the channels which are around the lip of the jar. After that, they put a lid and as the wax cooled,  a seal was created. But, the main disadvantage was the fact that it was very difficult to open the jar because they had to melt the wax in order to take off the lid.

 

• mason jars - this is one of the most popular types of antiques canning jars which were used by people in order to conserve their food. This was patented by John Mason and it had a screw-on cap. This was much easier to use because the seal was more reliable than the wax sealer.

 

• thumb screw clamp - this type of canning jars had been used during the Civil War. This jar is different from the others because it has a cast metal wire which clamps down on a lid and its function is to hold the lid tightly in the neck of the jar. 

 

• kline stopper - this canning jar was patented in 1863.  This one was different too because it used a gasket and a glass stopper in order to seal the jar. We all know that canning jars are resistant to heat, and when the canning jar was heated the stopper and the gasket were put on. This way, they created a vacuum: when the jar cooled, the stopper was pulled into a place and it was held there. The main disadvantage was the fact that it was kind of difficult to open the jar.

 

 

These are some of the antique canning jars that were used in the past. They were different from the canning jars that we use today. Antique canning jars are also different and unique because of their colors. Their colors are very important when we establish their value. 

Antique canning jars came into a  variety of colors and clear and aqua jars were considered to be colorless, and most of them were like this. Antique canning jars could have a lot of colors, but usually they were: amber, aqua, cobalt, olive, emerald or even clear.

 

Nowadays there are a lot of people who collect antique wholesale canning jars and use them as gifts or as decorative objects.