GROUND LIP BEST JARS
DOMINION GLASS Co 1886-1896 & DOMINION GLASS CO LIMITED July 17th 1896 -97
This was the first Dominion Glass and was bought out by the Diamond Glass Co on Nov. 16 1897. They were for the most part shut down by Jan. 21 1898.They registered a Trade Mark on the BEST jar on May 22 1895 .
Here I run into questions. There are two Quart jars and two half gallon jars that belong to this Company.
Only a few QUARTS have the word PATENT on the base and lid . Yet they are not scarce without the patent marking.
If the non patent ones were made after the Diamond Glass took over, there would be no reason to remove the word patent engraving from the mould as they ( DG Co ) would own all rights.
Having a large group of these I find all colors in them are also found in the arched DOMINION jar leaving me to feel sure that all ground lip Best jars ( NOTE with the exception of the ones that became the PANSY to be discussed later ) were made by the early Dominion Glass Co.
I also feel they were making Best jars before they took out the Trade Mark and did so to protect the name , because another glass house copied the Best name . This forced the other company to change their Best to Pansy.
LID PATENT
BASE PATENT
These are ground lip jars.
In measuring the embossing from the top left side of the B to the top right side of the T , I find two moulds.
QUARTS
Mould # 1 embossing 3 & 7/16ths inches
Mould # 2 embossing 3 & 3/16ths inches
Each of these can be found with & without the word PATENT on the base & lid They are very scarce with the PATENT .
HALF GALLONS
Mould # 1 embossing 4 inches
Mould # 2 embossing 3 & 15/16ths inches
As these are very close and worn moulds don't have crisp embossing to measure, there is a fair difference in the distance between the E & S on these two moulds. So From the B top to the lower bump of the S , I get these measurements.
Mould # 1, B to S , 2 & 3/4 inches
Mould # 2 , B to S , 2 & 7/8th inches.
GROUND LIP BEST MADE AT BURLINGTON GLASS
It is likely that Burlington copied these from the previous jars in around 1894 prompting the early Dominion Glass Co to trade mark their jar . Burlington closed in 1897 so this meant changing to the word PANSY in 95 and making them for a year or so, making the Pansy quite scarce.
These Best jars are the colored jars that are so sought after. There are deep rich greens in the half gallon and ambers in the quarts.
I'll deal with the jars then expand on the Burlington designation.
BEST
QUART
One mould with no base mark . Embossing width 3 & 1/8th inches .
HALF GALLON
One mould with no base mark . Embossing width 4 & 1/8th inches .
Pansy's are the same width , the word BEST is seen blotted under the PANSY.
These became the PANSY quart & half gallon, the first ones didn't have a base numbers . Then they had the 265 base for the Quart and 267 on the Half Gallon .
The type of engraving used on the base gives us info of origins. It is not in a block type numbers it is more a script type , the 6 is key.
By the adding of the base number we can guess a mould inventory was done in 1896 .
In 1926 the Hamilton Plant did a full inventory of current moulds in stock . We must remember that all Burlington stock and labour went to the Toronto Glass ( all of these belong to Diamond , Diamond Flint & then Dominion Glass co) then in 1925 all of the Toronto stock went to Hamilton again , that was the reason for the 1926 inventory.
These Best - Pansy moulds are gone .
265 BASE
267 BASE
In his book John Barclay mentions the DGCo pint , it is Red book # 777. Shards of these were found at Burlington Glass. He also mentions there was a plain mould one. I have a plain one without the DGCo in a maple leaf , with the base # 261 , also clear glass that is suncasting. The script engraving is the same .
The rich tealy green aqua of these Pansy 1/2 gallon jars, as well as the ambers are the same as other jars produced at Burlington ( See Sweet heart Crowns )
It also fits with the insulators I have ,CD 162 .. 1678 (with the same style of numbers) ,came in purples and grays and green aqua, till being sent to TGCo then Hamilton
The Brockville Pilgrim soda bottles are 326 on the base of the quart . On these sodas made at Burlington the mould line went around the base in the same way as the mould line over base insulators showing they also were made there . The Pilgrim soda from Hamilton was made at Hamilton Glass , later the Pilgrim sodas were made at Wallaceburg.
This is not the only jar copied by Burlington Glass , the No Word Sweetheart crown was another as well as the NO Word Pint Crown copied from the Reverse crown of the NAGCo. These jars were earlier and done when Burlington was using clear glass for their jars.
Even though the Hamilton glass had trade marked the Crown in 1880 it could not be enforced because they had been making them for several years and the Crown name had become public domain )
I don't believe the Crown trade mark was enforceable because the Hybrid quart , bulge Crown and others had to have been made by NAGCo - Diamond Glass Co ,well before they bought out the Hamilton Glass Co in 1891.
SMOOTH LIP JARS
I feel the smooth lip, smooth base OVERSEAL jars are under valued. They were a short production .
At first I thought the smooth lip overseal made by the DG Co. were reworked ground lip moulds from the first jars made by the Early Dominion Glass Co... On further study I don't think they were.
NOTE:
The moulds transitioned from smooth base and lid , to smooth lid rayed base , later they were reworked to become the Smooth Lip underseal group , with rayed base and lids .
SMOOTH LIP OVERSEAL QUARTS , smooth base & lid.
Again measurement is top of B to top right of the T.
I didn't find base numbers on these. I feel there are only 2 moulds in each size, but as these are quite close in enegaving , being done at the same time for a machine it's hard to tell. Most machine made jars came in even numbers for the heads on the machine. When the moulds became underseal I feel they added 2 more moulds in each size , so 4 moulds each.
1st mould is 2 & 13/16ths inches.
2nd mould is 2 & 15/16ths inches...This mould has a 3/8th inch circle between the lower bar of the E and the S . There are also 2 blots or circles on the back , same size as front about an inch apart , one above the other.
SMOOTH LIP OVERSEAL HALF GALLONS. smooth base & lid.
1st mould 3 & 15/16ths inches.
2nd mould 4 inches . I have this jar also with a Base 3 .
Again I'm sure there are 2 moulds that went through the same changes as the quarts.
UNLISTED ODD JAR
I have two smooth lip and base OVERSEAL QUART jars with the word PATENT on the base , the PA and the T at the ends show , but the machine circle on the base blots the rest of the word. In the very center of the base there is an indent with a point in the center about 5/16ths inches across and 3/16ths inches high.
These jars are exactlly the same size and form as the original ground lip Best made by the early Dominion Glass Co..
From base to top of the jars shoulder is 4 inches. Whereas the later smooth lip jars are 4 & 1/8th inches .
Both are heavy light green glass ,with lots of bubbles .
Now for the very odd part , one jar came with a ring and plain glass lid but the other came with a ring crimped over the lid making them one unit. I feel this is a Canadian made piece , likely short lived because the lid can't be cleaned as well with the ring attached. ....... A patent may show up someday.
PATENT IS COVERED BY CENTER MARK BUT CAN BE SEEN ON BASE
LID IS CRIMPED INTO THE RING