I Found A Giant Jar!

[tekisui]

I found this in the woods off a road near a house I maintain. It is Hugh!!!!

[Inchworm]

1. Awesome

I now know all those old cabins I rummaged through as a teen had some very cool things in them.

I never took anything. I spent days peeling the wallpaper and reading newspapers from the early 1900s and some 1800s.

I once found a grave. gah!

Most places have been used. You lucked up finding remmnants.

:woohoo:

[NYC_SKP]

2. That's a monster jar...

And it cleaned up nicely!

[tekisui]

12. Exactly as I found it.

[Orrex]

3. Is that Sylvia Plath I see in there?

Hmm...

[Swede]

4. Now go make some pickles.

A mason patented jar,no less.

[hibbing]

5. nice

Hi,
That is an awesome jar. Are you going to do anything in particular with it?

Peace

[tekisui]

10. I don't know yet, I'm kicking around ideas...

[XemaSab]

6. Anecdote of the Jar

Wallace Stevens

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I placed a jar in Tennessee,
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion every where.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Tennessee.

[chknltl]

7. As a child, I once found a hedgehog in a jar

The poor thing was stuck headfirst in a mayonnaise jar. My dad helped bust it loose and we released it unharmed. Had it been sensible enough to have tried on a larger jar, (perhaps the pictured Giant Jar), I would never have had the chance to have held a hedgehog. (That particular lil guy was the only one I have ever seen, before or after, in real life!

[Jamastiene]

8. Are you going to fill it with change or moonshine?

:P

[snappyturtle]

9. ok, I'm envious! Love old jars....looked this up for you!

http://www.qnet.com/~glassman/info/jarfaq.htm

) What is a Mason Jar or my jar is embossed with "Mason's Patent Nov. 30th 1858"?

The familiar term Mason Jar came after its inventor, Mr. John L. Mason, who, at age 26, was a tinsmith in New York City. He perfected a machine that could cut threads into lids, which ushered in the ability of manufacturing a jar with a reusable, screw-on, lid. These jars freed farm families from having to rely on pickle barrels, root cellars, and smoke houses to get through the winter. For urban families, Mason Jars allowed excess fruits and vegetables to be preserved for use later.

Historians believe the first jars were made at Crowleytown's Atlantic Glass Works, in Crowleytown, New Jersey. These are very rare.

These jars carry the familiar embossing "Mason's Patent Nov. 30th 1858". This date refers to the original patent date, not the actual date of manufacture. Jars carrying this embossing, often with other monograms, numbers, letters, etc., were widely produced until about 1920. Most were produced in the 1880s-1910s. The identities of many actual manufacturers are unknown.

Value depends on embossing, color and size. Common mason jars are worth about $6 but some rarer versions can be worth $100 or more to collectors.

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I think you have found a great jar that looks to be in wonderful condition! Kudos!

[Inchworm]

11. Wha! Cool info, thanks

The mason jar still gets a lot of use down south :D

:hi:

[tekisui]

13. That is interesting, I wonder if it could be from the 20s?

[snappyturtle]

14. I think it's probable. I am amazed the glass has remained so clear.

We finds a lot of glass on our property (we've only had it two years) and it is never that clear.
However, this land had very hard (abusive) use so maybe that is why our glass appears very worn. Who makes the jars today? DO they still make them? I don't know but it would be interesting if 'Mason" still exists what they would say about it. imho