It’s that time of year. The garden bounty is abundant and many of us are busy canning, pickling, and putting up veggies for later use before they go bad. While food preservation is no longer the necessity it once was for cold-weather survival, it’s still a rite of the season in many New England kitchens.

In addition to their practical usage, vintage canning jars have become a popular collector’s item over the decades. Often referred to as Mason jars, named for American tinsmith John Landis Mason who patented them in 1858, this specific type of canning jar has a mouth with a screw thread for a metal ring or band.

Canning jars entered the scene in the mid-19th century and sell like hotcakes every year, used for preservation as well as home décor and crafting projects. During the pandemic, there was even a shortage of canning jars and supplies.

Collectors, however, seek out the vintage jars with unique colors, odd shapes or sizes, and rare closures. While the brands and characteristics of antique jars are extensive, the canning jars with the highest value have a few telltale features:

• They have unusual shapes. Prior to the development of a standard cylinder design, canning jars were often shaped with unique molds, resulting in larger bottoms or a lack of symmetry. A lack of “typical” shape can indicate historical value.

• They have pontil marks or bubbling. A pontil mark is a type of scar or rough mark that is left behind on the base of the jar by the pontil rod during the glass-making process. Finding these types of marks or bubbling and seam imperfections on a jar can be a sign of an early jar.

• They have non-aqua colors. The earliest of jars were made from a wide variety of colored glass and the darker amber or light-yellow colors are more sought-after by collectors.

• They have early maker’s marks or logos. You can determine a jar’s age by researching the maker’s marks or logos. Brands often changed their marks through the years and early jars are identifiable by their marks.

Speaking of brands, the number of jar manufacturers was immense and a multitude of companies recreated John L. Mason’s jars over the years. Patents changed hands often as well. A few of the most notable brands of jars are The Ball Corporation, Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation, and L.E. Smith Glass Company.

An extremely important feature of a vintage jar is its type of closure. Of course, there is the previously mentioned Mason jar closure with the screw-top band that is still used today in modern jars, but other closures were also notable and are highly valuable to collectors.

Henry William Putnam of Bennington, Vt., invented the Lightning Fruit Jar in 1882. This type of closure was a glass lid secured by a wire bail that remained attached to the jar. Lightning jars vastly improved the sealing method and the ease of use of canning jars.

Hazel-Atlas, the glass manufacturer widely known for its Depression glass sets, produced canning jars from 1902 to 1964 and created the closure known as the E-Z Seal. The E-Z Seal raised the lids from sitting right inside the jar to prevent cracking. The earliest and most valuable E-Z Seal jars date back to 1910 and are made from amber glass.

Another advancement was in the Kerr Jars. These jars began production at the turn of the 20th century and had a metal lid with a permanently attached gasket that fit into the jar. This type of closure meant there was no screwing necessary.

With such a wide variety produced, many antique jars still exist to this day, although not all vintage jars hold equal value. According to collector websites, here are a few of the most collectible jars to be on the lookout for in your travels:

• Willoughby Stopple Jars are from 1858 and used a defective two-plate closure technique, like a cork, making them rare and valued at about $500.

• Ball’s Upside-Down Jar was only produced for 10 years and could also be used as a coffee grinder. They are worth about $1,000.

• Magic Star Fruit’s Black Amber Jar was patented in 1886. It is an opaque dark amber color and one of the highest-valued jars at $3,000.

• Van Vliet Jars were manufactured for only four years and were shaped like a trapezoid. Due to its rarity and uniqueness, this jar can fetch a whopping $23,500. Now that’s worth checking Grandma’s attic!

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