The Marmalade
The Keillers have been making Dundee Orange Marmalade in the town of Dundee Scotland since the early 1700’s, and opened a marmalade factory in Great Britain in 1797.
As the story goes, familiar with many great products, this one sprang from a bit of an accident. In 1700, Dundee Scotland grocer James Keiller, took advantage of a Spanish ship taking refuge from a winter storm in the harbour carrying a large cargo of Seville oranges. The price was dirt cheap so he bought bushels full. Expecting to turn a quick dime young James was disappointed when he discovered the Seville oranges were way to bitter for most peoples tastes and they didn’t sell!
His wife, Janet, went to work on a simple recipe utilizing sugar and thick chucks of Seville orange rind to make some preserves. Apparently this marmalade was just right for peoples tastes and the Keilers couldn’t keep the stuff in stock, eventually ensuring a regular stop for Spanish ships full of Seville oranges, and in1797, another generation of Keiller’s finally built a marmalade factory, and a British staple was born.
The Jar
With over 200 years of history, you’d think tracing dates on a jar would be pretty straightforward. Well, not for me, apparently I haven’t looked in the right place… yet!
I know their newer jars are made of white glass. I found plenty from 1862 touting their prize medal for marmalade, grand medal merit Vienna, Some jars say Dundee and Croyden on the bottom, some do not have the heart with 1797. Every other one I’ve come across has some reference to England impressed into the bottom.
This one has a few small chips on the foot rim and a few minor pits, but overall this piece is in stellar condition. There is crazing throughout and the bottom is white, rough and unmarked. It is about 4.5 inches tall and 2.5 in diameter.
The challenge
First person to lead me to a definitive answer as to a time frame of when this particular jar was made will get a coupon good for %25 one item in my Etsy shop.
THIS ITEM HAS BEEN SOLD
UPDATE
Viking Sweetheart below (who bought a 1973 Western Electric Bell phone from me a few months ago that I swear, it’s throaty ring would shake the floor!), happens to be a friend of mine named
sparrowandbloom on Etsy.com, who
contacted me via Etsy and pointed me to good info about these jars.
Maling Collectors Society “Maling” was the name of the pottery that produced most of the Dundee Marmalade Jars. The September 2000 Newsletter shed some light on my mystery.
Two interesting facts stand out:
1. “…By the 1870 the Keilers were purchasing millions of pots annually from Maling…”
2. “…America – something of an oddity perhaps, given that Keilers had no US trade worthy of mention before 1880…”
(Which reminds of the old collector adage, “just ‘cause I ain’t seen it, don’t mean it’s rare!”)
So I pulled the jar out again and could be easily convinced it is ca. 1897 - 1940. The lines are tight on the body, and having thrown some pots in my younger days having more rounded shoulders makes sense, especially if you're doing tons of 'em by hand, straight sides are much more difficult, at least for me.
There is a clear spinning motion to form the bottom, an easy press to manufacture I would think, though it is still relatively rough. The font, and particularly the layout of the measurement seem more modern than my original guess, and would fit I think into the above. Additionally the crazing is similar to other items I've seen from the time period, though as a counter I haven't seen enough earlier pieces (yet!) to know if crazing from a 1796 piece looks any different.
I could see this design being uses as a centennial perhaps? Which would put it at it's earliest of 1897, though it's questionable whether it's to "clean" design wise for that. Until I know differently it's open to possibility. I would think that by 1940 or so the process would have been more exact and not quite as rough? It seems the most modern of the stoneware is a bit brighter, or could just be my weird photography ;)
However my one concern is the lack of marking on the bottom. I can’t see anything being scratched off, it’s too rough and fit to form, and there is nothing there. If I recall by 1897 most all mass produced goods at least had the country of origin imprinted. This threw me off considerably and had me leaning towards a much earlier piece even though the design didn’t match . However I’ve yet to read of any of these jars without a potters or country mark. No one fakes $5 items and it’s clearly not a modern repro.
Mysteries yet to be solved
When did they stop making band tops?
When did they switched to glass, and if that killed production of stoneware?
Why no mark?.
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