Vintage Griffiths White Milk Glass Spice Jars-Set of Five

This is a great set of five vintage white milk glass spice jars by the Griffith Laboratories Company, Chicago Illinois.
Each of the jars retains it's original paper label for the spices -
Celery Salt,Black Pepper,Paprika, Poultry Seasoning and Roastmeat Seasoning.

The back labels are also intact except for the Black Pepper and each label describes how to use them.
There are no chips or cracks in these jars and each has its original shaker.
The original metal green lids show signs of use and wear adding to their vintage appeal
The jars measure 3 1/2" x 1 1/4" x 1 1/2"

A great retro, vintage kitchen item!!

Griffith Laboratories was looking for a way to make their company a household name when they came up with the idea of creating beautifully-designed spice jars filled with their high-quality spices.
As with many products at the time, promotional items were a way to gain traction in a given market, a strategy which worked particularly well during the Great Depression.
During the 1930s most families were on a strict budget. However, the new Streamline (AKA Art Deco) styles in home decor piqued the interest of many housewife. If one had to buy spices anyways, why not buy them in stylish jars? The jars were in production from the 1930s until the 1950s.
Griffith Labs used a special production method to ensure that the spices were sanitary, hence the phrase “purified” which appears on many of the spice jar labels
The milk glass jars were usually white, although Griffith did make other colors like a lovely dusted coco color. Most of the jar designs had distinctive vertical labels, each one emblazoned with “Griffith’s”.
The early jars were molded with the designs on, while later jars was made plain and then paper labels were added later. Today, many of these paper label jars are now missing their labels completely.
Griffith’s also made several colors of lids, to match a variety of different kitchen schemes. Red, black, yellow, pink, and green were just some of the many colors they produced. Often the rack for the rack would be coordinated to match the lids. The back of the jars would indicate how the spice was commonly used.
During this era many women cooked with a minimum of spices, using salt, pepper, allspice, and cinnamon most often. Spices like sage, curry, and mace weren’t new, but many families at the time ate plainly and ethnic foods were not yet common.
For a lot housewives, a set like this would have not only been a lovely decoration and an efficient organizational tool, but it would have also been a chance to try new flavors that up until then had not been part of the standard fare.
Today there is little else as iconic as these spice jars for a retro or vintage themed kitchen, although most home cooks probably have more spices in their cabinets than would have been included in the original set. The jars have proven to be so popular and durable that there is now a market for replacement labels and lids!