Ball Mason Jars Go Blue for Centennial

Ball Mason jars are one of the great American brand names that define a particular category. It is so much so, that most could not even name any other brands that competed against it, though if you think hard, Libby and Kerr come to mind.

This year, the company celebrated the centennial of the Mason jar, and reintroduced the blue Ball Mason jar, pictured here. The Pinterest-friendly jars include the beautiful Ball script and a translucent blue that would make any canned vegetable even more beautiful than nature. Today, Ball jars are back in fashion for the umpteenth time, as the middle and upper middle classes explore new frontiers like permaculture. Frankly, you are not really a prepper or Amish if you use such good design sense in your home canning, you are just, well, cool.

Ball, the NYSE company, is no longer actually making the jars; the home canning business was spun off in the early 1990s and is now part of Jarden Home Brands, which owns that other canning brand, Kerr. While the brand and the parent company have both fared well since the split, it was not a good idea, as it is always dangerous to separate a company name from the product that gave it its name because at some point, the two companies can go in completely different directions and take the brand with it.

That being said, Ball is very much still in the canning business, a leader in selling beverage and food containers. And since the beginning of the space era, it has had a leadership role, perhaps best known as a builder of the Kepler Space Observatory and inner-workings of the Hubble Space Telescope. They also made the Quickbird satellite imaging system that takes photos of Earth from space.

The Ball jar is one of the better products used for recycling. It is a standard size, useful for not only canning but for drinks, pencil holders, coin jars and the like. Back in the 1970s, when the nostalgic “fern bar” came of age, restaurateurs often used the Mason jar as table glasses. Today, they are back to their original purpose, taking America’s great bounty and keeping it fresh, on the shelves, for a few seasons more.

Author

  • Garland Pollard

    J. Garland Pollard IV is editor/publisher of BrandlandUSA. Since 2006, the website BrandlandUSA.com has chronicled the history and business of America’s great brands.

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4 Comments

  1. Dear customer
    This is Nancy from May Flower Glassware.my company is at Bengbu City ,An hui Province, China.Bengbu is the glassware city in China and have a lot of glassware manufactures,glassware design research and development companys.

    May Glassware Factory is one of largest manufactures of glassware for all series of daily use in China.which manufacture all kinds of glassware and has powerful ability to make the new molds for the customer designs and physical samples.


  2. I attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and earned my architecture degree there. The University enjoyed the philanthropy of the original Ball brothers and subsequent generations (memorialized on campus in the form of an allegorical sculpture in bronze named “Beneficence” by Daniel Chester French). What brought the Balls to Muncie: plentiful natural gas and sand, the two main ingredients necessary for the manufacturing of glass. They lacked a source of trained labor, so they built a university.

  3. This should be THE jar for gift giving this Christmas! After all, a special gift deserves a special jar.

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