Dating 3 Merry Widows Tins

[Texaspast]

No, I'm not trying to get hooked up with Agnes, Mabel and Beckie - just info .Those of us who hunt old home sites are familiar with two of the 'trash' markers that tell us a time frame for the occupation of the site: The tin jar lid with a white glass liner and the Three Merry Widows container. With the 3 Merry Widows tin, the design changed over the years - one with no price, one with three for 50 cents and one with 3 for $1.00. Does anyone have any information about when these were produced? Having actual dates for when each of these was in production would allow us to more narrowly define the time when the site was occupied. I assume they were in use in the '20s and '30s, but maybe they were earlier and later - it would be nice to know. I've tried to find the answer but have had no luck. Any of you guys have an answer? Surely some metal detecting mag must have had an article on this - if not, there's a good topic for an article for you writers.
And for that matter, is there any reference you know of for the white jar lid liner types and dates of production? I've assumed they were in use from the 'teens through the '30s. I suppose these could be dated from old catalogs. And, of course, these lids were reused, maybe for years, so it won't be exact. I doubt we'll find the 3 Merry Widows for sale in the Sears catalog, though .

 

[Texaspast]

Thanks for the reference above, Poppy! I may have to order that book just for my own education. I'm sure the Merry Widows were in use prior to the '40s, as I have found them at sites I know were not occupied in the '40s. Since there were three different style of tins, maybe we can figure out which were produced when.

 

[spittfire]

Those white lid liners are porcelain, not glass. I have found several at the old schoolsite I am hunting. They have porcelain written on the inside.

 

[Texaspast]

I didn't know there were porcelain ones, too. The ones I find are definitely milk glass. Any idea who made the porcelain ones?

 

[dooby]

I do know from my dump digging days I would pass on a site with "screw" top bottles or jars. I think maybe the earliest screw tops were produced in the 1910's.

What I still do when trying to date a site is to look at the color of any glass laying about the area. In particular I look for "purple' glass, or sometimes referred to as "sun glass."

History Lesson: From the 1850's to around 1915 (I believe) American glass manufactures added "manganese" to "clarify" there glass, for a lack of better words. This "clear" glass when exposed to the sun / ultraviolet rays turns purple. The shade of purple varies with the amount of exposure to the sun. If my memory serves me correctly it takes 20 to 25 years of exposure to the sun for the glass to begin to turn purple. I have seen three identical bottles, one was clear, the 2nd bottle had just a twinge of purple and the 3rd bottle was "definitely" purple !!!

So, look for the purple / sun glass when trying to date a site !!!

 

[Morris Williams]

I have seen some on Ebay and I believe they were around in the 20's. Not sure what company made them.

Morris

 

[Carol K]

Here's a link to the one I found, is yours the same? Never did find much info on them though, except the Update at the bottom is courtesy of someone who emailed us.

http://gometaldetecting.com/old3merrywidows.htm

 

[Diggler]

I think the 50 cent one is the oldest. Then for a buck. Then the no price. I could be wrong. Did a little research after finding one.