Collections Item Detail
Maxwell House Instant Coffee. 4 oz glass jars with caps. Made by General Foods Corp., n.d., ca. 1951-1960.
Object/Artifact
Instant Maxwell House Coffee. 4 oz glass jars with printed paper label; lithographed metal screw cap. Made by General Foods Corporation, New York, N.Y. No date, circa 1951-1960. Three examples all appearing to be from the same era. Overall: 2-1/4" diameter x 4-3/8" high. Printed paper wrap-around label, 2-3/8" high. Original contents not present as received.
Maxwell House was a division of General Foods. While not so marked, it is highly probable that the coffee was made and packaged in Hoboken at the Maxwell House Coffee factory where it was also developed in their laboratory and test facility. (Maxwell House did have three other plants in this period: Jacksonville, Houston and Los Angeles.)
Each cap top is ink stamped with a retail price.
Jar 1: label in very good condition; price "54 cents" [cent symbol]
Jar 2: label has two tears, one front, one back; priced ".54"
Jar 3: label is very good and placed lower as noted above; priced "54"; base profile has greatest detail and suggests that this may be the oldest of the three.
All jars were made by Anchor Hocking Glass with their codes on the bottom and name on bottom band on jars 1 and 2. The shape of each jar is slightly different especially at the neck. Jars 1 and 2 are most similiar with jar 3 having a rounder neck extending lower and thus the area designed for label placement starting a quarter inch lower. Caps also have Anchor Hocking name and code on edge printing. The cap has a star motif on the top and around the edge. These jars, label and cap styles are found first depicted in a 1951 magazine advertisement and a 1952 ad states "Reach for the jar with stars on top." A review of ads from 1950 and earlier will find a different label and cap being used.
2010.007.0173
2010.007
Lukacs, Claire
Gift
Museum Collections. Gift of a friend of the Museum.
1951 - 1960
Date: 1951-1960
Good
Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2010-09-22