Ball Mason Jars: Quick Value & Dating Guide Rare Finds

Table Of Content

• Ball Canning Jar "Ball Blue Perfect Mason" Glass Fruit Jar Off-Size 56 Oz Aqua Blue Zinc Ball Lid
• pieces Personalized Mini Mason Glass Jar Favors with 50th Birthday Design Labels, Birthday Party Favors Jars 877
• Vintage 6oz Ball jar on a pedestal
• Vintage Fruit Mason Jars Machine Embroidery Designs Pack Instant Download 4x4 5x5 6x6 hoop 12 designs APE2721
• “BALL PERFECT MASON” fruit jars

From handmade pieces to vintage treasures ready to be loved again, Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. It’s also home to a whole host of one-of-a-kind items made with love and extraordinary care. While many of the items on Etsy are handmade, you’ll also find craft supplies, digital items, and more. Older Ball Mason Jars are often marked with mold numbers 0 to 15. And in some cases, you can also find the letter ‘A’ or ‘C’ with the number.

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Ball Canning Jar "Ball Blue Perfect Mason" Glass Fruit Jar Off-Size 56 Oz Aqua Blue Zinc Ball Lid

The Ball Brothers Company stopped making glass canning jars in 1996 after it sold all its glass manufacturing operations. However, its spin-off, Alltrisia, which later became a separate company named Jarden (Newell Brands), produces licensed Ball jars. Each mold was hand-cut (hand-engraved) with the lettering incised backward into the inside surface of the mold, which of course resulted in the embossing (raised lettering) which is seen on the surface of the jar. Many slight variations are seen, with the exact lettering orientation just barely  noticeably different from one example to another, such as the spacing, height, width, depth of cut, of individual letters.

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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.

Vintage 6oz Ball jar on a pedestal

The bubbly appearance of the glass is reminiscent of some glass decor items that have been imported to the US from such countries as Mexico, Spain and China. No one seems to know where these repro half-pints were made, but it is assumed they were made outside the US, possibly in China or India. Usually, the automatic jar-making machine had eight or ten mold cavities or “positions” for the molds. A set of molds included numbers above “10” as the higher-numbered molds were typically used as replacements on the machine. Most of the earlier versions were round (cylindrical) in shape, and some of the later types are square (with rounded corners) in design. Some variants have vertical raised lines (“ribs” or “grips”) along the sides,  added to assist in handling the jars while they are wet.

Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation

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.

Brief History of Ball Mason Jars

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.

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Ball Corporation’s most popular canning jars, Perfect Mason Jars, have a distinctive shoulder and screw-thread zinc lid for an airtight seal. These jars display “PERFECT MASON” embossment below the Ball logo. It may take a while before exact duplicates are found – that is, finding two jars that were both made from one individual, specific mold. Ball jars from specific decades have their own unique logo, and they’re all worth something different. Businessman and entrepreneur Alexander Hewitt Kerr (September 4, 1862 – February 9, 1925) organized this company in Portland, Oregon in 1903 under the name Hermetic Fruit Jar Company. The official name was changed in 1904 to Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company.

“BALL PERFECT MASON” fruit jars

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.

That’s why most old Ball jars are blue or aqua, which are common and worth less. Generally, aqua Ball jars don’t fetch over $50, even for a large quart or half-gallon size. Some Ball Perfect Mason jars are found with the number “13” on the bottom. As mentioned earlier in this article, most Ball-produced jars are typically found with a mold number ranged between 0 and 15, so naturally some percentage of them will carry the number “13”. According to the stories, they threw them away, or intentionally broke them, fearing their enterprise could otherwise be met with bad luck. Sometimes the story accuses ordinary housewives of having done the same thing if they were especially superstitious.

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.

They are commonly seen for sale on the secondary market at antique malls, farm and estate auctions,  flea markets, thrift stores, rummage sales, yard/ garage sales, and on online auction sites. If you want a quick peek, you can always type in your jar’s credentials into eBay or Etsy and see if you have any that are a match. Some even have logo “misprints,” such as this Ball jar that has three Ls on the front.

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.

Find the canning supplies you need to store fruits and vegetables in after the harvest. We offer canning jar lids that can be purchased to replace old or used canning lids. In order to conserve excess or premade food, canning jars are the most suitable option to store food.

These jars are also known as ‘Sure Seal Jars’ and ‘Ball Eclipse Jars.’ You can identify these with the “IDEAL” text embossment. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. The Ardagh plant at Winchester, Indiana (where many of the new “Ball” brand jars are being made) is a former Anchor Glass Container Corporation facility that was acquired by Ardagh. 1) Although there is a mold number on the bottom (similar in “look” to the mold numbers on the originals) there is no Owens Scar on the new jars. The Owens scar was formed as part of the manufacturing process, and is a somewhat variable but generally rounded scar consisting of a thin, sharp, clearly defined “seam” or “line” that encircles part of the bottom. The seam may be somewhat “feathered” or “frayed” along the edge.