This jar is very similar to its HG cousin located here.

It is the first jar I ever paid over $1000 for.  I think I paid $1500 or so way back when at the Nashville national show.

The most significant thing about this jar is the unusual Willoughby closure it has on it.  There are really two types of Willoughby closures - the heavy cast iron version which is most common and normally thought of when people refer to a generic "Willoughby Stopple" but this is a much different kind.  It has two metal plates rather than cast iron which squeeze together and rather than squeezing out gutta percha, there is a large "rubber band" around the edge of the stopple which gets pushed out.  It has the Willoughby name and dates on the thumbscrew while the cast iron ones have it cast into the iron plates which squeeze together.

When I first mentioned this to one of the bigger collectors he was convinced I was wrong.  He, along with apparently the majority of the collecting community, was convinced that this type of stopple was only used on the free blown Willoughby jar (an example is here).  I found this jar with this closure, however, and it has the original rubber band and fits tight enough that it will stay in when I turn the jar upside down.  When I showed him this and explained the situation he changed his mind.

I feel very confident that this is the original closure that came with this jar.  The chances that you would happen on another one of these insanely rare closures with a rubber band that fit this jar like a glove is essentially nil so I don't have any problem claiming that this is the proper closure.  There is one other Ladies Favorite I've seen with this closure on it and that one is chewed up to almost nothing.

Since I didn't show the reverse side embossing for the HG jar, I'll show the reverse of this one here.