Old bottle mystery

Miss Cindy knows well my love for old bottles and canning jars. So she keeps an eye out for both as she goes about her way.

Canning jar that looks flat

Last summer she scooped up this jar at a yardsale.

Canning jar that looks flat 2

Its a little taller than a regular size canning jar-and as you can see it is threaded like one-you can also see the design along the side. I had never seen one like this-till Miss Cindy gave it to me. My first thought was that it was like a flattened canning jar-since it isn’t round.

Old bottles

I loved the tall jar-but once I had added it to my ever expanding collection I didn’t give it any more thought. Until a few weeks ago, when me and the girls went dump digging and found 4 more like it-except they are smaller as you can see in the photo.

Identify old bottle

2 of the smaller jars have the same design along the side as the larger one.

How to identify old bottles

One had this design along each side-almost looks like notches have been cut out of the glass;

Old bottle what is it
and the other had this design-sorta a line of 3 dashes.

The bottom of the largest one-the one that came from Miss Cindy has this: DES PAT-0-86565-then below that is a mark with 7 on the left of it; 6 on the right of it; and 8 below it.

Bottle patent number

The 2 smaller ones-that have the same design of the larger one-look like this photo.

Patent number on bottle

The one with the cut out notch design bottom looks like this.

Numbers on old bottle

The bottom of the one with the series of dashes looks like this.

What kind of jar is this

So can you help me-do you know what came in the jars?

Come back in a day or so and I’ll take you along on our trip so you can see what else we found that day.

Tipper

 

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38 Comments

  1. my name is daniel and i have the same set of jars and iv been trying to find out what they are i found my under a house along with a bunch of old peanutbutter jars this is the only place iv seen them the peanutbutter jars were not the same

  2. I have a glass bottle im trying to figure out what it was used for. Its marking is DES.PAT. 211,156 . L·20825 It has a small anchor in the middle a single number 6 and the number 13 in a small circle. I cant find anything on it could somebody please help

  3. hello, I know this is kinda late in game. your jar is made by the illinois owens glass company, they are still the largest glass container company in the world. I found a similiar jar on property but has a different top to it. the symbol on the bottom of a circle with a diamond and a number on either side. the left number is the manufacturer site, the number on right is the date #. go to http://www.sha.org for more help. the bottle falls under the pharmaceutical/proprietary category.
    my bottle was made at site 7 in alton Ill. in 1937.
    the sha site will have a list of all their sites including the ones still in operation today.
    if you have more questions let me know.

  4. I bought a bottle with the pat # D 86565
    last week at a yard sale and it has a lid on it that looks like it belongs on it and it has a picture of a 4 pk of Mrs Filberts oleomargarine on it. I am just assuming it goes with the jar . The people at the yard sale were selling thier grandparents estate and the jars were in the barn in a box.

    1. Gladys, I have multiple jars with that Patent. It is from Jack Sprat Pickle company out of Des Moines Iowa. It’s a Iowa Patent, but I think the company was in Marshaltown. From what I can find, sweet or dill pickles came in them with a zinc lid in the 1920’s. I do not know it’s value.
      The base of my jar reads this way: DES. PAT. 86565. with a 7 and a logo design with a 1 in it.a 9 then at the bottom of the logo design is a 6

  5. Kirk-great to hear from you! I don’t know anything other than what you read about the bottle-but maybe someone will chime in with more information.

  6. I have been looking for information online on a jar I bought today at a thrift shop for 50 cents. I just had a feeling that it was old by the feel and shape of it. This site is the closest I’ve come to getting any information about it. I see from Ed Ammons’ post that a jar with the design patent # 86565 was from 1932. My jar is 82933. It has a 7 to the left of a circle-in-diamond design then a 5 to the right of it. There is a sideways 4 way to the left and below the 7. Then DES.PAT. 82933 underneath. I am not able to include a photo I’m afraid, I tried to google the patent # and couldn’t get anywhere. I would love to know more about my bottle. Any information you have would be very much appreciated. I am in Oglethorpe county GA. Your collection is great and your photos really do them justice. Thanks for your time. Kirk Edwards

  7. I recognized the shape of the flat jar and the zince lid, not for the original contents, but the one still in my grandma’s old trunk. It held her snuff and kept the sweet-hot powder dry and fresh. The snuff was emptied, but the dust was never washed away. It holds symbolic memories. My grandmother died during the depression. Snuff was the only extravagance she gave herself and it must have been “borrowed” from a neighbor, since she kept it in this re-used jar. Only two of her nine children indulged in dipping. My mother, age 87, still does. And after 82 years still keeps dearly the “snuff jar” her mother gave her.

  8. I love those jars! What a treasure you found. I have no idea where they came from, but I do like them. What will you use them for? Something that pretty shouldn’t be packed away like mine. LOL

  9. It seems to me that I saw jars like that when I was a kid (they were old even then) that still had labels on them. I believe they held condiments like horseradish, relish and maybe some kind of cream-of-tartar sauce.

  10. My first thought was honey or molasses. But then I noticed the Heinz symbol. Probably catsup or horseradish.

  11. Beautiful jars-I’d say honey,too. We collect the old blue ones. If you know anybody with a 13 they’d sell cheap(LOL)), I know a buyer!

  12. I wish I could say more specifically, but as Lanny said, a couple of the smaller jars look like the jars that pickled pigs feet came in. As others have mentioned, there is wealth of internet sites that can show you how to read the bottom markings. Other sites, many more, give details of interest to bottle and jar collectors (like us). I see one of yours was made by Owens-Illinois and another made by Keystone Glass Works in Pennsylvania.
    Where patent numbers appear, one may also trace the patent information.
    What a great collection, Tipper. And your photos always make things all the more beautiful.
    But, alas, I can’t specifically identify any one of them.

  13. I agree maybe one is ketchup and a couple of the oval shaped looks like Honey jars, but I don’t know for sure…They sure are pretty. I love old jars and old snuff glasses myself too..Thanks for the post..Susie

  14. I have a couple of interesting jars I accummulated over the years. I tend to agree that honey may have been in one type, probably the one with the rounded shoulders near the top and slants toward the bottom. Rounding is very appealing, I think, to the eye. Well, I will watch for the real answers.

  15. I really love your bottle collection. It is amazing at how they made such intrique designs back then and that they hardly do that now.
    Now that i know you like bottles i will keep my eye’s open for you.

  16. we have something in common ,
    i love old bottles and jars and have them wherever i can put them, the colored ones go in the windows as the light shines thru , almost like a church window , i,m always on the lookout for pretty bottles and jars and LOVE the old jelly jars

  17. Tipper, I’m no jar expert but.. the oval shape is like the jars that as a child our honey came in. Especially the one with the ridges, they were on the jars that held my dad’s favorite honey, but another brand came in one that had the stair steppy design. But very specifically remeber honey coming in “flattened” jars. Canned meat – pickled pigs feet – also came in a “flattened” jar, tall and oval, smaller at the bottom, with chubby sholders, but they didn’t have screw tops, there’s was a lid that opened with a bottle opener.

  18. Tipper,
    My heart just about stopped when I saw the jar that is sorta bell shaped….Years ago I found a soft shoulder half-gallon Speas jar at Murphy flea market…I bought it for ten dollars…Even though I don’t like to think from my gut, I cradled it in my arms until I found my husband. I was
    sure it was special…since I had seen one larger…I took it back home, questioned a dealer who was always looking for Speas jars…and he offered me 450 for it..SOLD…He needed it to complete a collection of them in the staggering sizes for a customer that would buy the whole size range..He was tickled pink..the dealer..and then the customer…LOL I went shopping for more jars…LOL Not really!
    Speas is marked Speas on the bottom..shaped like a bell..they were vinegar jars…so you can imagine that the soft shoulder was the missing link to the collection. They are beautiful jars in my humble opinion..The size range in a complete set,
    is pint, quart, half-gallon and gallon..
    You should be able to find quarts and gallons in dumps that haven’t been dug often…
    No one used or bought the half-size so much…the other jars aren’t as expensive. BEWARE they
    are being reproduced..reproducing the Speas jar in the quart for sure, don’t know if the others are but I imagine so…By the way the little pint is a stinker to find also…
    I’d say a Heinz product in the
    label style jar.
    Mayo, salad dressings and mustards..Pickled Pigs feet..ewww in one of the jars…LOL
    Thanks for a great post Tipper,
    enjoyed very much..Oh and Apple Vinegar Jars are very popular too and you should be able to find some of them…That was $450.00 not $4.50….

  19. Tipper, I just love the old jar finds, thinking about where they came from, what was in them, and who had them. These in particular are so pretty.
    I think I have to go along with Michael that honey was their original content. I can remember honey is a similar shaped jar.

  20. The jar designs look vaguely familiar. I’m sure we purchased something in them for our use at our Choestoe farm where I grew up. Peanut Butter came first to mind, but I can’t be sure. It seems I remember them being hard to wash, with the design, especially if they had contained peanut butter, when we wanted to clean them up and sterilize them to use as homemade jelly holders.

  21. I have no idea! Ed’s information was sure interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a jar like that but now I will sure keep my eye’s out!

  22. As tall and slender as a couple of the jars are, I would think it would have to be something that came out easily? I’m anxious to read what everyone has to say. Very interesting Tipper.

  23. The last one looks like it has a Pennsylvania keystone shape on the bottom of it. The marks on the last side view look like morse code.

  24. I google your numbers and found this:
    “In the 1930’s there was an interest in fancier jars, unembossed but distinctive enough to have a design to warrent to them. The type of jar that you show in the first pic is Des. Pat. 86565, a number issued in 1932. It was put out by Owens-Illinois as a “modernistic jar”, in 17 different molds (varies on size, finish, weight). They held food, often jelly, but sometimes peanut butter, etc. Theres no telling what was in them unless you have a label from one of the companies that used their jars. I’ve dug plenty of them, as they were made clear up into the 1950’s”
    One of your jars has what looks like a Heinz logo. So I’m gonna guess ketchup or catsup was in it. Ketchup bottles still have that shape.

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