Newman’s Patent 1859 Jar

Newman’s Patent Dec 20th 1859

Carlton Newman, San Francisco, California

Aquamarine Pint

Provenance: Jerry McCann Collection

Here is an amazing jar that could be filled with history instead of preserves as the patentee was one of the pioneers in the American glass-making industry. The “Newman’s Patent Dec. 20th. 1859” jar can be found in aquamarine pints and quarts. Clear quarts are also reported. These jars are hand-blown and have a ground lip metal cover with an India rubber band.

Carlton Newman was born on June 26, 1829, in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. As a youth, he learned the glass-blowing trade which would guide his life. When he was 30 years old and residing in Birmingham, Pennsylvania, Newman received patent No. 26,515 for an “Improvement in Preserve Cans” on December 20, 1859. Birmingham would eventually become Pittsburgh. The patent was reissued as No. 1,105 on December 20, 1860, with the same drawing that included a more complex explanation for the process.

The patent described the seal as being made of a wide, India rubber band covering both the jars neck and the outside bottom of the metal cap. It was probably impossible to obtain a hermetic seal using this closure system.

FOHBC Hall of Fame inductee Dick Roller noted that Bakewell, Pears & Co. advertised the Newman’s Patent Fruit Jar in the May through September 1860 Pittsburgh newspapers. He further stated that Newman, in 1863, was a member of E. Wormser & Co., a rival glasshouse, suggesting that the manufacture of the Newman jar was either short-lived or that the manufacture had switched to Wormser. Despite this seemingly solid identification, Roller claimed that the maker was uncertain, although the Bakewell, Pears & Co. of Pittsburgh probably made the jars.

Newman would leave Pittsburgh in late 1863 and move to San Francisco, California and become the prime mover behind two major glasshouses in the city. The first was the San Francisco Flint Glass Works opened by Newman and his partner, Patrick T. Brannan, in May 1865. This factory continued to operate until 1875, when Newman, now sole owner, purchased the rival Pacific Glass Works. He would die suddenly on March 8, 1889.

See the museum example of a Victory Jar – Pacific Glass Works