Excelsior (Basket of Fruit)

Excelsior

(Embossed Basket of Fruit)

Attributed to Houghton Glass Works, Corning, New York

Aquamarine Quart

Provenance: Jerry McCann Collection

Our museum example of an “Excelsior Basket of Fruit” jar represents an aquamarine quart that is shaped somewhat like a milk bottle. ‘EXCELSIOR’ is embossed horizontally on the front side while a pictorial basket of fruit is embossed prominently on the opposite side.

The Excelsior jar is hand-blown and has a ground lip. The closure would be considered a top seal with a glass or metal lid with a zinc screw band. The cupped glass lids were embossed ‘PATENT APLIED FOR’ (sic) or PAT’D AUG. 8 1865.’ The jars can be found in clear pints and quarts and aqua pints, quarts, and half-gallons. There are reported citron quarts and pints in apple-green. There is a variant without the basket of fruit that is just embossed Excelsior.

This superb jar is somewhat of an enigma with the fruit jar authorities. There are a number of jars embossed “Excelsior” meaning something to the effect of “excel” or “excellence.” These jars were made in Canada and the United States. There were a number of related patents, lawsuits, and relationships between the patentees, proprietors, and glassmakers.

Fruit jar authority and 2018 FOHBC Hall of Fame inductee Richard Allen “Dick” Roller noted that some of the jars had lids embossed ‘PATENTED DEC. 6 1884’ and that the patent belonged to Charles G. Imlay of Philadelphia. In the Fruit Jar Annual 2020 – The Guide to Collecting Fruit Jars by Jerome J. McCann (also our museum jar consigner), it says that on March 2, 1869, the patent associated with this jar was reissued, No. 3,321, to Mr. Imlay and that by mesne assignment, he turned it over to S. B. Rowley of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is thought that the jars may have originally been made by the Houghton Glass Works and later produced by the Hero Glass Works.

You can see that with the illustration above from Alice M. Creswick where she illustrated three variations and claimed the Excelsior Glass Works of Pittsburgh as the maker from 1859 to 1886. Roller eventually concluded that Excelsior jars were most likely produced at the Houghton Glass Works in Philadelphia ca. 1864-1865, although he noted the Creswick Excelsior Glass Works suggestion and added that an Excelsior jar was also advertised by the Moore Brothers of Fislerville, New Jersey in 1865.

This same jar is used in the Phase II fundraising advertisement for the FOHBC Virtual Museum. See below.

Support: Reference to Red Book #11, the Collector’s Guide to Old Fruit Jars by Douglas M. Leybourne, Jr. Use of Creswick drawing granted by Doug Leybourne.

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

Support Image: Auction Lot 558: EXCELSIOR with BASKET of FRUIT, Aqua HG, An aqua half-gallon milk-bottle shaped jar embossed on the front side: EXCELSIOR and on the reverse with a pictorial of a basket of fruit. The jar has a crack in the neck as shown. Otherwise no problems. The correct original glass insert has an edge chip. Base: unmarked. – Greg Spurgeon, North American Glass

Support Image: Auction Lot 15345: EXCELSIOR Milk Bottle Shaped Quart w/Basket of Fruit, Size: Quart, Color: Aquamarine, Closure: glass insert embossed “PATENT APPLIED FOR” and original zinc screw band. Appearance: sparkling glass. Condition: edge flaking on the ground mouth. Embossing: strong. Base: unmarked. Age: 1860-1870. Availability: rare – Greg Spurgeon, North American Glass

Support: Reference to The Diamond Glass Companies of Montreal, Canada by Bill Lockhart, Beau Schriever, Bill Lindsey, and Carol Serr

Support: Reference to Consolidated Fruit-Jar Company v. Wright. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School

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