Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff
THE ST. DENIS JARS The pint in Photo 1 is listed as #3080 in the RED BOOK. It stands 5 1/2” tall with its all-glass screw cap, and its raised lines give an overall rectangular design, except for the 3/4” clear band around the middle for the label. There are two “dimples” in the cap to receive a wire bail, but I have never seen one with any evidence that a bail was actually used. This smooth-lipped jar was obviously a later item, and it’s not terribly uncommon. The label reads only “St. Denis Bath Crystals,” with no company name or address. This jar was featured in the August 2003 Fruit Jar Rambles, and at that time nothing was known or could be found relating to either the jar nor the company that produced the “St. Denis Bath Salts.” But the internet is constantly expanding our knowledge and our potential for ferreting out facts from years past. The hunt resumed almost ten years later, and we were fortunate enough to find the ad in Figure A, featuring our glass screw cap jar, which ran in May 1828, in both the DAILY ARGUS, of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and THE PELHAM (New York) SUN. The ad reads, “St. Denis Bath Salts,” available in the “Odors” of Jasmin, Chypre, Rose, and Narcisse, packed “In charming crystal barrel containers that have many uses after the contents are gone.” Jerry McCann, of Chicago, found the design-patent jar in Photo 2. The rectangular grid-pattern design of this jar is reminiscent of the earlier glass-screw cap jar, but this one has a black metal screw cap lettered “St. Denis.” Its base is embossed ST DENIS PAT PENDING. The pictured jar stands about 4 1/2” tall, and Jerry says that the antique shop had another, slightly larger jar of the same design and closure that took a slightly larger
screw cap. This is one of those designpatent jars for which no patent registration has been found, although it obviously fits in that category. Again, through luck and diligent searching, we came up with the ad in Figure B, which appeared in the OAKLAND (California) TRIBUNE on December 17, 1930. Capwell, Sullivan & Furth, “The Store With The Christmas Spirit,” offered “St. Denis Bath Salts Sets” for 79¢, which included the jar of St. Denis Bath Salts, Bath Powder, and Soap. We were also able to learn that the “Parfumerie St. Denis” was established by Irving Veith, East 21st Street, New York, in 1921, launching a range of appealing perfume fragrances. The SYRACUSE (New York) HERALD, on Aug. 29, 1924, carried the first mention we found for “St. Denis Bath Salts,” with the 75¢ size selling at Hunter’s for 59¢. Irving Veith’s use of the St. Denis name may have been inspired by either Ruth Saint Denis, a popular modern dance pioneer of the period, or by St. Denis, the patron saint of France, who was martyred shortly after 250 AD. It always helps to have an easily remembered, popular name associated with your company, and the martyred St. Denis’s French connection would have fit in well with fancy perfumes, cosmetics, and such. Americans have long over-appreciated products made, or thought to be made, abroad, such as French champagne, German mustard, Spanish olives, English marmalade, and such. Photo 3 shows yet another bath crystal (salts) jar, clear, 4 1/2” tall, with a squarequilted design in the glass. The square jar has the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company’s HA logo on the base, and its closure is basically the same black metal “St. Denis” screw cap as found on jar number 2.
PHOTO 1: Glass screw-cap St. Denis Bath Salts jar.
FIGURE A: A 1928 ad featuring the St. Denis "Crystal Barrel" jar.
Its label reads, “St. Denis Bath Crystals Printed In U.S.A., with a sticker for “Les Fleurs de Jasmin” on the base. The Parfumerie St. Denis filed papers with the U. S. Patent Office on March 26, 1925, for a trademark for the words ST. DENIS in a particular arrangement, unlike that found on the above label or May 2020
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