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Having discovered, among other things, this stash of 10 vintage spice jars in Box #1, I had to do some research and see what I could find out about the jars. They resemble another old spice jar that I have and for awhile I was confused, thinking it must be all the same set.
I pictured that spice jar in this post over two years ago.
I still keep whole nutmeg in it.
All of the jars are apothecary-style vintage glass spice jars. However, it eventually sunk in that it made no sense that the “nutmeg” jar was part of the same set. I haven’t opened this box since I moved, twice. Everything in the box other than the plastic plants came from my grandmother via my mother. Perhaps when I moved from Texas to North Carolina (when my mother gave me all the things that she gave me, because I was moving away), I stuck that plastic plant in there just because there was room for it. I don’t know. I just know I haven’t opened this box in years. And further examination and research showed the jars are actually different. The “nutmeg” jar is a vintage 1950s John Wagner & Sons spice jar.
You can see an amazing collection of 100 Wagner spice jars in a photo here.
Wagner jars have “Wagner” embossed on the bottom of the jar. The “nutmeg” jar has it.
The other jars have no “Wagner” on the bottom. The bottom of the other jars says Made in Taiwan.
I was unable to find anything more about these jars as there is no company name embossed on them, but I believe they are a Wagner knock-off. A vintage knock-off, which is still interesting. They were for the the farm wife who coveted those nice Wagner spice jars but needed to spend a little bit less. The similarity of the font you can see on the few jars with remaining labels suggests an imitation of Wagner’s label style.
There are small bubbles in the glass of a few of the jars, but everything else about them suggests they were contemporaries of the Wagner jars, not older than them.
I’m going to leave the few existing labels intact, of course, but I’m going to clean them up, put new labels on the rest of them, and put them to use.
And at this rate, I’m going to finish the downstairs project in 2,506,319 years!
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The jars I would wager a guess are not that old and I agree they are probably a knock off. I rembmer my mom having a set of spice jars like that once when I was a teen. They will look neat with your spices in them. Or put small flower arrangements in them. Lots of possibilites for neat little jars like that.
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I was just watching a commercial on TV last night about little pre-measured spices you buy for specific recipes…from McCormack, I think. Spice containers have come a long way…housewives used to keep them under lock and key a couple of centuries ago. Then they were stored in drawers in a small wooden cabinet that hung on the wall. The late 1800’s brought about the round tin boxes with individual tin containers inside them.There also china canister sets which would have spice jars in the pattern of the set. Those are my favorites because I love the beautiful patterns, espcially the sets from Germany.
I’m sorry….I’m rambling on about spice jars. It’s the antique dealer in me!!!
Show us a picture when you get all the jars cleaned, re-labels and filled!!
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So good luck!
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I am also going through things to renovate and there is one room in the basement of God knows what from BO’s fathers dumpster diving days. Thank God he cleaned it up before he left it there.
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I think those old spice jars are in the shed…the place where no one goes…except to store mysterious boxes of junk.
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I love finding treasures….
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I have some jars like those somewhere, I will have to see what box they are in and in what room…I know they are here some where! LOL!
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I was so pleased to get them, complete with rack. It seemed like the height of sophistication to have all your spice jars match, and to have jars instead of tins.
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Until the 1960’s or early 70’s, Taiwan was known as Formosa.
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In other news, I’ve got a little surprise for you over here!
http://twocatpots.com/?p=2187
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