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Historical object · Jars, pots and crocks

Glasgow jam jars: plum (1947), strawberry (1961) and rhubarb–ginger (1963)

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Three dated jam labels at Glasgow’s Tenement House record household preserves: Victoria plum (1947), strawberry (1961), and rhubarb and ginger (1963). They document storage and domestic history, not a recoverable recipe.

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Editorial illustration of upright pale ceramic jam jars on a cupboard shelf, some covered with plain paper tied by string; an interpretation of the general form described by the National Trust for Scotland, not a documentary image of the three dated jars.

Three labels, three household dates

At the National Trust for Scotland’s Tenement House in Glasgow, handwritten labels identify Victoria plum jam from September 1947, strawberry jam from 1961, and rhubarb and ginger jam from 1963. Together they preserve a small, unusually legible sequence: named fruit, dates and domestic containers. They do not provide recipes, quantities, or a complete account of how any batch was made. The source calls the first example Victoria plum; it does not identify a cultivar for the later strawberry or rhubarb-and-ginger jars.

The dates also need to be read against rationing. The National Trust for Scotland notes that jam was rationed from 1941 to 1953 and that women were encouraged to make their own during the Second World War. The September 1947 label falls inside that stated period; the 1961 and 1963 labels are later household records, not wartime examples. The labels document keeping and remembering preserves, but do not establish one continuous practice or a shared method.

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A domestic jar form

Curator Emma Inglis describes small upright stoneware jam jars as a form found in smaller houses. A neat groove below the rim could hold string securing a waxed-paper cover. This provides a useful account of period storage form: a modest upright jar and a tied paper cover, rather than a modern pressure-rated canning jar. The account does not say that each of the three dated jars is stoneware or that each used that closure.

A separate National Trust for Scotland photograph of the Tenement House cupboard shows a mixed collection, including pale ceramic jars, glass jars and bottles. It is visual context for the collection, not an identification photograph of the three dated objects. Other jars at the house have different dates: a plum label from 1929 and a marmalade jar from 1941. They must not be conflated with the 1947, 1961 and 1963 examples.

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Collection objects, not reuse advice

Agnes Toward lived in the Tenement House flat from 1911 to 1965, and the National Trust for Scotland describes much of the house’s surviving contents as hers. The jam jars belong to this preserved domestic setting. Their value is documentary: labels connect food storage with named fruit, dates and a particular Glasgow home.

That museum context sets a firm limit on practical advice. Old contents retained in the Tenement House are historical collection material and are not for eating. Sources do not specify these jars’ capacities, exact materials, whether they were reused, how their labels were attached, or whether the coverings were airtight. Those unknowns should remain unknown: this record is not a tested recipe, a preservation protocol, or a recommendation to reuse historic vessels.

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Object details

PowerNo power Unpowered storage vessels; the sources do not describe temperature-control equipment.
How you get oneNot established Sources identify preserved household jars but do not say how these vessels were obtained.
CareThese are preserved museum objects, not a practical reuse recommendation. The National Trust for Scotland says the old contents kept at the Tenement House are not to be eaten.

Made of

  • Stoneware — Documented general form
    NTS describes small upright stoneware jam jars in smaller houses; it does not identify the exact material of each of the three dated jars.

Limits

Sources give no dimensions, capacity, maker, or preparation method for the three dated jars.

Source

Places

Glasgow

Historical attestation · Locality evidence

The National Trust for Scotland places the labelled jars in the Tenement House, Glasgow. This is collection location, not manufacturing origin.

See Glasgowon the mapLocation source 1 →

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