# BALL jar amber swirls



## ajohn (Sep 20, 2008)

OK,got a question.How common is the BALL IDEAL half gallon with amber swirels? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, but don't seem to find it in red book


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## ajohn (Sep 20, 2008)

pic


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## bobclay (Sep 21, 2008)

Hi ajohn,

 Pretty jar! Amber swirling in Ball jars is a fairly common occurrance before the 1920s. Usually it was caused by something contaminating the glass batch and could occur on any particular jars they were making at the time off that particular furnace. Or, whenever Ball was changing the color of their glass in a particular furnace for customers, they would often run fruit jars until the glass became the desired color since no one really cared what color their fruit jars were so long as they did the job.

 That said however, you don't often see IDEALs with much amber swirling and the value would be subjective to the collector based upon the intensity of the swirling.

 Bob


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## bobclay (Sep 21, 2008)

And one other thing. The wire around the neck of the swirled jar. Does it end with a tiny loop and the other end of the wire stuck through it? And instead of a metal collar where the top wire fits, is it too made up of two loops of wire? If so, that would be an original neck wire for a The Ball PAT APLD FOR jar and very difficult to find. []

 Bob


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## ajohn (Sep 22, 2008)

bobclay,First of all,I would like to thank you for all your effort in the area of JARS.I have learned alot from your contributions here and from other sites also.This hobby (passion) has been one of the vehicles in my journey back to the human race.It is good to be in circle of  humans who are so quick to share,very few fellowships like this.Gotta do the work thing so sometimes takes awhile to get back.Here are some pics of  what you were talking about.Thanks


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## ajohn (Sep 22, 2008)

one more


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## bobclay (Sep 23, 2008)

Hi ajohn,

 First, thank you for the kind words! One of the things that I found out real early in jar collecting was that 95% of jar collectors are simply wonderful people and more than willing to share their knowledge with others, just like many others do here. Were it not for the many very knowledgeable mentors I had over the years, I wouldn't know a third of what I do now. Being a jar collector for 33 years now, I just try to give back a little to the hobby I've enjoyed so much.  []  Anyone wanting to learn more about Ball jars than they ever thought possible should check out our Ball Jar Collectors Community Center. The amount of information there is staggering.

http://balljarcollectorscommunitycenter.yuku.com/

 Now back to your jar. Thanks for the better pics, but the neck wire isn't what I thought I was seeing. It has the metal collar that the top wire fits into so it isn't the neck wire off of a PAT APLD FOR. Sometimes you can find extra wire bails on ebay that will fit your swirled IDEAL. It would be worth it to replace this rusty one with a nice one. Or maybe in your travels you can find an IDEAL real cheap and take the bail wire off of it and put it on this one.  Good luck!  

 Bob


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## ajohn (Sep 24, 2008)

Thanks Bob.Speaking of swirls,I just picked up a crown Coronet/milk glass swirls.How common are milk glass swirls?I'll post a pic when she comes in.


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