# Dating Keiller Dundee Marmalade Jars



## RIBottleguy

I recently dug my first example of this very common English jar.  I was interested though in the letters on the front that are some sort of date code.  Right under Marmalade you can see an S and a Q in the wreath.  I'm pretty sure my jar dates to the 1910-20s era, but would love to have an exact date for it.  Do any UK collectors know the date codes?








 Here's the earliest example I could find online.  It doesn't have the 1873 award date, so it's probably mid 1860s-1873


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## surfaceone

Hey Taylor,

 I do like the crazing on your Keiller. Here's an excellent article about the Keiller jars and the Maling Pottery: http://maling-pottery.org.uk/08.pdf

 Scroll down about 3/4 of the page, Dr. Mathew seems to conclude that the letters indicate batch codes, perhaps known only to Keiller's or Maling. I see that Dr. Mathew has written a couple of books that may be of further interest to you: Keillerâ€™s of Dundee: The Rise of the Marmalade Dynasty, 1800 â€“ 1879 (ISBN 0 900019 34 4). He has also written The Secret History of Guernsey Marmalade: James Keiller & Son Offshore (ISBN 0 9532547 0 4), a little book available from La SociÃ©tÃ© Guernesiaise, St Peter Port, Guernsey. 

 Kudos to you for spotting the letters and deducing they are date related. I've dug 3 of them and never noticed the letter code.






 An "A" jar from http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/James_Keiller_and_Son


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