Jars with wide mouths, as seen here, were used to store fruit preserves or pickled products. Preservation of these foods was essential, and these jars were normally sealed with cork and pitch or wax, which was then covered by a piece of leather that was tied on around the neck. The globular balls that have been with these jars since at least the 1920s are, in fact, glassmakers’ whimsies. It is unlikely that these stoppers, called witches balls in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, were always used with these jars. Indeed, only one stopper was purchased with the jars. The other, which probably dates to the late nineteenth century; was presumably acquired later.

Related examples: Wilson 1972, p. 90, fig. 65; p. 133, fig. 94 and fig. 95 illustrate a globular whimsey.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.