M.G.CO. marks on antique bottles & fruit jars (Mississippi, Missouri, Modes)

  These initials on the bottomS of antique glass containers usually indicate products made by Mississippi Glass Company, St. Louis, Missouri (c.1874-1884+)  or  MODES GLASS COMPANY, Cicero, Indiana (1894-c.1902)

MISSISSIPPI GLASS COMPANY

  Mississippi Glass Company specialized in making “export beer” bottles,  wax sealer fruit jars, and other “green glass” bottles, and although it was in business much later than 1884, reportedly no bottles were made after that year, as they subsequently concentrated on producing flat window and plate glass, specializing in  industrial “wire glass”. This type of flat glass contained wire (similar or identical to chicken wire) embedded within the glass in various patterns. That type of glass was heavily used in factories and industrial construction.  Mississippi Glass Company continued in business for many years, evidently into the 1950s or even later, with several other glass manufacturing plants located elsewhere. (This webpage is only concerned with their early container production).

Most of the wax sealer type fruit jars embossed with the initials “M. G. CO. ” on the base are probably products of Mississippi Glass Co.  (It is possible that some of them marked “M.G.CO.” were made by Missouri Glass Company, mentioned farther down on this page, but it is still unclear if this is so).

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Those wax sealer jars appear to date, in general, from the 1870s and 1880s.

In some cases, the “G” looks quite similar to a “C”, although there is usually a slight difference between the two letters, with the “G” having a faint “tail” or slight serif on the lower right-hand side of the letter. This is especially noticeable on the base of some of their beer bottles.

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Note: There are also some wax sealer jars marked “M C CO” on the bottom (no trace of a “tail” and it is obviously a “C”) and in those cases the maker of the jar is uncertain. Some collectors believe they are also products of Mississippi Glass Co, but researcher Alice Creswick  (The Fruit Jar Works) wrote that she thought there was a possibility those jars were made by another concern, such as Wm McCully & Company of Pittsburgh.

 

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Below is an excerpt from the “History of Saint Louis City and County: From the Earliest Periods, Volume 2” pg. 1284,  John Thomas Scharf (1883).  He writes:  “The Mississippi Glass Company, of which George D. Humphreys is the principal proprietor, has works on Angelica Street near Second. The chief products are green glassware, such as pickle-jars, fruit-jars, sauce-bottles, etc.,  the demand for which is very large in the city. The company have enlarged the works to enable them to meet the demands for the wares which are produced. There are about one hundred and twenty persons employed in the establishment.  The sand used comes from Franklin, and the soda ash is imported from England. The lead used is obtained in St. Louis. This company does not attempt to make clear glassware. The demand for the products of the factory is very large. It was established about 1872.”    (Note: I believe the beginning year date is off by a year or two, but perhaps other sources of information will eventually clarify this for certain).

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Another brief quote, this passage is from Yearbook & Trade Review (Year Book of the Commercial, Banking and Manufacturing Interests of St. Louis), 1882-83 issue, page 106:

“The Mississippi Glass Company; President, Edward Walsh. Run 2 Siemens regenerator furnaces and Elliott producers. Specialties: green ware, beer bottles, fruit jars, and druggist’s packing bottles; furnaces: one of 8 pots and one of 6 pots.    Their trade is west of St. Louis and as far east as Indianapolis. They employ 250 men and boys at a cost for wages of $125,000 annually, and their total out put is about $250,000.”

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 MISSOURI GLASS COMPANY, St. Louis, MO  (c.1859-1911)

Missouri Glass Company was principally a glassware and housewares distributor in later years, selling large quantities of imported cut glass, high-end tableware, creamware,  queensware,  pottery, lamps and similar items.  However, they definitely manufactured some bottles and jars, at least in the very early years of operation.   Some fruit jars are known with the initials “Mo. G. Co.”  In recent years it has come under question as to whether those jars were actually made BY Missouri Glass Company, or by another manufacturer FOR them.    So far, there doesn’t seem to be any solid PROOF that Missouri Glass Company made any containers with the mark “M.G.Co.”.   

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MODES GLASS COMPANY, Cicero, Indiana (1894-c. 1902) 

NOTE:     Julian Toulouse (Bottle Makers and their Marks, 1971) wrote (on pages 359-361) that Modes Glass Company of Cicero,  and Millgrove Glass Company (Millgrove, Indiana (1898-1911) used the “M. G. CO.” mark.  He gave no specific information to indicate exactly how he came to that conclusion.

In the case of Modes,  I am fairly sure that at least SOME beer bottles marked “M. G. CO” were indeed made by Modes Glass Company in Cicero.  An example of bottles in question would be some blob-top beer bottles in shades of very light aqua or light green that were definitely made in the 1890s,  long after 1884 which was when Mississippi Glass Co. stopped making bottles.  For example, a few bottles marked “M . G. Co” on the base are known that were produced for the William Gerst Brewing Company in Nashville, Tennessee.  That brewery did not operate under that exact name until 1890.  Some other bottles of similar appearance (but with a crown lip, meaning sometime after 1892) bearing that same brewery name are found marked with “I B & G CO” on the base, which stands for Indiana Bottle & Glass Company of Cicero.  That company was a successor to Modes Glass Company. https://brucemobley.com/beerbottlelibrary/tn/nashville/gerst.htm

Putting all this information together, it does seem to show that Modes Glass Company was the maker of those particular bottles, and there may be other beer bottles that can be dated to a similar year range that would also be products of Modes.  (That company also was known as “Modes-Turner Glass Company” for a while in the circa 1900-1910 time period.)

Regarding yet another “M” glass company in Indiana, the Muncie Glass Company, Muncie, Indiana (1888-1906), Toulouse stated that that manufacturer used “M B Co” on their glass, which seems rather doubtful.  Perhaps more intensive future research will shed light on the marks used by these  last-mentioned companies.

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Here are some links pointing to several other pages about Saint Louis,  MO area glass companies and their marks:   L.G.CO. mark (Lindell Glass Company)  ,   F.H.G.W. mark (Frederick Heinz Glass Works)  , G.W. (Great Western Glass Company)  and   I in a diamond mark (Illinois Glass Company).

For an extensive list of glass manufacturers’marks on bottles, fruit jars, insulators, tableware and other items, please click here to go to the Glass Bottle Marks pages (page one).

Please click here to go to my website  Home Page.

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Here is an ebay keyword search string that might bring up glass items with the M G CO mark on them. (Keep in mind that some or most of the search results may be irrelevant) :

M G CO /M C CO search on ebay

 

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