Beautiful Aqua Ball Canning Jars

I haven’t done one of these for a while! Not that I haven’t been perusing thrift stores, just haven’t found much lately. However I did make two really fantastic finds a couple of weeks ago these gorgeously aqua, old style Ball canning jars (the official name for this color is “Ball blue” but whatever I like aqua better):

I’ve seen jars like these featured around the web in varies cool projects, but I have never seen one at a thrift store before. In the last few years the aqua Ball jars have become popular and sought after. Online sellers often want upwards of 10 bucks an aqua jar, for both the wire top and screw on styles.

The interesting thing about my jars is they came from different thrift stores about a week apart. I found the little one at a local thrift store for only 69 cents. About a week later I did a double take walking down the junk aisles of an ARC and picked up the larger jar for $1.99.

The history of canning jars is fascinating, and many jars are worth a fair amount of money. For help dating canning jars check out this page written by Dave Hinson. For help dating Ball brand jars check out this page written by Bob Clay. One of the easiest ways to find a general date for Ball jars is their logo:

After reading plenty about Ball jars, I have determined that my large Ball jar was made sometime between 1923-1933. Unfortunately, my small Ball jar is a fake. It was made to mimic the 1970’s bicentennial reproduction Ball Ideal jars. It is from Mexico, and once you have examined real wire shut Ball jars you can tell something is off. The side of the fake jar is stamped “not for home canning.” The color of the jar is much deeper, the wire closure is flimsy and doesn’t hold the lid quite right.

It is disappointing that it isn’t real, but thankfully I paid so little for it and it is still a cool jar I don’t mind so much. If you are purchasing Ball jars and want to insure that they are real check out this page on fakes.

For everyone that isn’t a diehard collector, and just loves the style many people fake the aqua look. Check out these cool project made with fake aqua jars (click the pictures for the origin page):