History of the Mason Jar
My first introduction to mason jars was from a very young age from my family...they were fabulous canners of preserves, pickles, etc.  In those days if you were poor, you had a garden and you savored  everything you grew.  Including all those cucumbers and tomatoes...

And, my grandfather was a moonshiner...stored the moonshine in mason jars.

I recently starting searching for vintage and antique mason jars because of my latest entrepreneurial venture: 14th  Street Vintage - Food & Decor.

You can find some fabulous old mason jars and learn a lot of the history of them while perusing the antique shops.  They are the best at the history of all things vintage and antique.  They are quite expensive...$55 for an old quart Kerr.  I also found a Moonshiner Ball Jar that sold for $500.

The classic is Ball.  All sizes.  See the link below for the History of the Mason Jar on the Ball site.  These are made by the Newell Company now:  Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest, Jarden, Bernadin and Penley brands.

And the newest gorgeous designs  by Weck you can find at Williams-Sonoma.  I love these jars because of their design, style, tempered glass and separate glass lids and of course the shapes.  Read about Weck History in the article below.

Kilner is an English brand.

Anchor Hocking

Leifheit

Fowler's Vacola

I will keep adding to this article as I find interesting compilations and articles.

The History of Weck Canning Jars from Kaufman Mercantile. Weck jars are a popular canning in jar in Europe that are really catching on here in the States and Canada. They are unique in that they consist of a tempered glass jar, a rubber gasket, a separate glass lid and metal clamps to hold the gasket and lid in place.Aug 6, 2012








 

Ball

Quart, Pint, 16 Oz., 8 Oz.  Find them at their website, Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon. All sorts of sizes, colors and designs.  My favorite is the "Feed The Hungry" Fluted Pint which I use for pancake mixes, soup mixes and baking mixes.  They also donate $2 for every set of four to the charity.

Kilner

Kilner are the English version of Mason jars. 

Weck

Love the old style.  My favorite are the tulip design.  Find them on Amazon and Williams-Sonoma.