Wax Sealer Jar – Hemingray

Ohio, Indiana, Ohio River Area

Squat Quart Blue Green Wax Sealer Jar

Provenance: Ron Hands Collection, ex Phil Robinson Collection

This squat, very heavy, thick glass jar, without embossing, was made in a blue-green, almost teal glass. We can attribute it to the late 1860s to 1870 with a midwest origin, possibly the Ohio River area of Ohio and Indiana. It is possible that the Hemingray Glass Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky made the jar based on the glass color and base form, but there is no definitive proof.

The jar dimensions are 6 1/4″ tall by 4 1/4″ base diameter with a 3 1/4″ wide mouth. The mouth is oversized, and regular tin caps will not fit. We include this “(embossed star) – Star Preserve Works” cap that fits perfectly. The jar is from the late Phil Robinson collection.

The majority of wax sealer-type jars date from the 1850s into the early 1900s. Their height of popularity was probably the 1870s and 1880s. Wax sealer jars were used in large quantities for preserving foods and this style of jar was somewhat of a competitor to the “Mason’s Patent Nov 30th 1858” screw lid jars.

Wax sealer jars were made with a circular “grooved ring” around the top, into which liquid sealing wax was poured, with a tin lid in place. This method of preserving was fraught with problems, and as time went on, the Mason-style jars eventually won out in popularity. Similar wax seal-type jars were made of pottery and stoneware.

See another museum example of a bell-shaped Wax Sealer Jar in sapphire blue.

See a W Script Wax Sealer Jar in the Museum Jar Gallery.

See a Hemingray Push-Down Wax Sealer Jar in the Museum Jar Gallery.

Primary Image: Wax Sealer Jar imaged on location by Alan DeMaison, FOHBC Virtual Museum Midwest Studio

Support: Reference to Red Book #11, the Collector’s Guide to Old Fruit Jars by Douglas M. Leybourne, Jr.

Support: Reference to Fruit Jar Annual 2020 – The Guide to Collecting Fruit Jars by Jerome J. McCann

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