Fruit Jar Rambles: Bade Duplex Jars

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

BADE DUPLEX

Most unembossed fruit jars are worth little as collectibles beyond their canning value, and even collectible base-embossed fruit jars are in less demand generally than side-embossed jars.

The 7 1/2 inches tall, clear (light aqua tint) jar in Photo 1 is in yet another category, having its lettering acid-etched on the side of the jar. Exactly what prompted this German company to opt for the acid etching rather than the standard side embossing is unknown, as is much of the information on the company itself.

The jar bears acid-etched lettering on its side in a diagonal, reading ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX 1 LTR. Its lid is embossed on the underside ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX with 100 m/m in the center, all to be read through the top. The jar’s base is embossed simply 1L. The jar has a neck bead, the top of which is ground, as is the jar’s lip. The bottom edge of the straddle-lip top-seal lid is also ground. A slight, one-inch depression in the center of the lid suggests that the jar may have utilized a flat metal clamp, at least for processing.

Interestingly, the jar appears to be a turnmold style, with no vertical seam lines. This would explain the etched lettering, as turn-molding wouldn’t work for a side-embossed jar, whereas a jar made in a turn mold could have the etched lettering added later.

Figure A depicts five of the ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX jars from an undated German jar pamphlet, ranging in size from 1/2 to 2 Litres. “Bade Duplex Sturzglaser mit hochsehenden Randern” at the top translates to “Bath Duplex Cover Glass with high edge.” “Fur Fleisch, Wurst, Kuchen, Gemiise usw. 120 Mil-

PHOTO 1:

ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX jar and lid.

FIGURE A (below):

ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX jars from canning booklet.

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

limeter” translates to “for meat, sausage, cakes, vegetables etc. 120 millimeters,” and “Mundgeblasen” tells us that the jars are “Mouth-blown.”

Page 6 of this undated pamphlet shows a canner with its lid marked “D.R.G.M. Original Bade Duplex.” D.R.G.M. stands for “Deutsches Reichs-Gebrauchmuster” or “German Empire Use Patterns,” which, according to the late Dick Roller, fruit jar researcher and FRUIT JAR NEWSLETTER editor, dates it to the pre-1918 era.

Chicken or the egg? Don’t know which came first, the acid-etched ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX jar above or the acidetched BADE DUPLEX 2L in Photo 2. The lid on this one is embossed BADE DUPLEX 360 120 m/m, and it has a bowed-metal and wire clamp (Photo 3). Six of the BADE DUPLEX jars from the same undated pamphlet are depicted in Figure B with basic flat metal clamps, rather than the bowed-metal and wire clamp on the etched BADE BUPLEX jar above. These are shown in 1/4 up to 2 Ltr. sizes. The heading for these jars translates to “Cheap (or “Inexpensive”) Bath Duplex Glasses.”

Information on “Bade Duplex” is almost impossible to come by, but one internet source claims that “Hermann Bade GmbH was founded in 1868,” and that in an undated advertisement the company advertised as a “Wholesaler in enamel, aluminum, household... haberdashery, leather and toys ...” Under the private Bade Duplex label, various household items were reportedly produced and distributed through the retail trade. Internet research suggests that Hermann Bade GmbH & Co. KG of Bad Bevensen, Germany, is still in business, but almost all mention of the company is in German. I have enough trouble with English.

Since “Bade” appears to have been the name of the company’s founder, as noted above, it should be retained unchanged as “Bade” in the translations above rather than as “Bath.”

The noted pamphlet also shows four cone-shaped, glass-stoppered ORIGINAL BADE DUPLEX jars, or bottles, in sizes from 1/4 to 1 Ltr., for “Milk or Juice” (Figure C).

Figure D, from the pamphlet, shows two additional containers, one marked as 1 1/2L on the left, listed as “Kruge,” or “Mugs,” with a different style metal clamp, and the 2 Liter example on the right listed as “Blechdosen,” or “Tin Cans,” with a flat metal clamp.

And sparse as it is, that’s all I can find out about the BADE DUPLEX jars. I assume

PHOTO 2: BADE DUPLEX 2L in acid etching. PHOTO 3: Bowed-metal and wire clamp from BADE DUPLEX 2L jar. FIGURE B: Six BADE DUPLEX jars with clamps.

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

that the jars depicted in the pamphlet are embossed rather than etched, but who knows? The pamphlet doesn‘t really stipulate. The etched BADE DUPLEX jars that we’ve shown are confirmed, as is an embossed BADE DUPLEX 1L jar seen in a photo, but there just aren’t a lot of these jars around (in this country at least) and there’s obviously still a lot to learn about them.

MAGGI’S AMBER JAR

Amber product jars don’t receive the same attention as amber fruit jars, but in Greg Spurgeon’s North American Glass Fall 2019 auction there was an extremely attractive little packer jar of some scarcity and worthy of note.

The amber, 3/4 pint, ground-lip jar (Photo 4) stands about 5 inches tall, with a roughly 3 inches body diameter. It is embossed between two bands of fancy-diamond-work just below the shoulder, MAGGI’S GEKORNTE FLEISCHBRUHE, which translates, more or less, to “Maggi’s Granulated Beef Broth.” There’s also a band of fancy work just above the jar’s heel, with two of the same vertical bands connecting the middle and heel band. The metal screw cap (Photo 5), which has a cork liner, is embossed KREUZSTERN, meaning “Cross Star,” above a fourpointed star overlaid in the center with a cross within a square.

In 1884, 38-year-old Julius Michael Johannes Maggi took over the flour mill that his father, Michael, an Italian immigrant, had established in Switzerland, in the village of Kemptthal, near Zurich. Julius seemed to excel in commercial food production, introducing ready-made soups in 1886 and then bouillon concentrates in capsules and cubes. Maggi’s products soon found markets beyond Europe, and in February 1888, “Bouillon Maggi,” an Extract of Beef, was being sold by W.M. Miller & Co., a grocer in faraway Wilkes-Barre, Penn., in 5- and 35-ounce sizes. And the above-mentioned “Cross Star” trademark (Figure E) was displayed prominently on a July 1892 billhead from the “Establissements Maggi” in Kemptthal.

Figure F shows a bottle of “Maggi’s Bouillon James P. Smith & Co., Agents” featured in a December 10, 1896 ad by Charles H. Slack, grocer, that appeared in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The square, tapered, long-necked, amber bottle depicted became identified with Maggi, often, but not always, embossed with MAGGI on the four shoulders, and with the trademark “Cross Star” in the center of each side and on the base. This depiction shows no MAGGI shoulder embossing, but the Cross Star trademark appears in the lower center of the “Liquid extract of beef” label. Bottles with the same basic shape, embossed on the shoulders, are still used today for “Maggi Würze,” translated as “Maggi Seasoning” (Photo 6).

In 1897, Maggi founded Maggi GmbH in Singen, Germany. Then, in September 1921, THE SPICE MILL trade magazine reported that trademark 146,975 had been registered in the United States by The Maggi Co. for the words “CrossStar,” covering “Seasonings in Solid and Liquid Form.”

In January 1937, THE SWISS OBSERVER, the journal of the Federation of Swiss Societies in the U.K., commented on “Maggi’s Seasoning, easily recognised by its specially shaped

FIGURE C: BADE DUPLEX milk or juice bottles. FIGURE D: BADE DUPLEX Mug and Tin Can. PHOTO 4: MAGGI'S amber seasoning jar.

By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff

bottle with drop stopper attachment. The addition of a few drops of this product, according to palate, will instantly improve in an amazing way the natural flavour not only of soups, but of a great variety of other dishes.”

Then in 1947, after a long, successful run, Alimentana S.A., by then the manufacturer of Maggi seasonings and soups, merged with the Nestlé Co., today known as Nestlé-Alimentana S.A.

And while product jars may come in second to fruit jars with many collectors, this attractive little MAGGI’s jar brought in a respectable price of $155 when the last auction bell rang.

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PHOTO 5: Cross-Star trademark on MAGGI'S jar cap. FIGURE E: MAGGI'S Cross-Star trademark from1886 Maggi billhead. PHOTO 6: Contemporary bottle of Maggi Wurze in traditional bottle. FIGURE F: 1896 ad for Maggi's bouillon in traditional bottle.

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