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Fine Art & Antiques by Dr. Lori
Collectible Cookie Jars
Posted 8/2010
Cookie jars are mainstays in most American kitchens. They evolved out of the smaller-scale biscuit jars. Cookie jars are traditional and collectible. Many American firms produced these post-war kitchen necessities.
For instance, in 1910, Nelson McCoy established the Nelson McCoy Sanitary Stoneware Co. in Roseville, Ohio. This area of Ohio provided a good source for natural clay, and the McCoy firm used this clay to manufacture decorative stoneware objects. Predominantly producing earthenware pieces for kitchen use, the new company saw expansion by 1925. The company modernized its production facilities and began producing decorative pieces in addition to their traditional kitchen items.
By the mid-1920s, McCoy hired designers to sculpt and decorate their new pottery lines. During the Depression, McCoy condensed resources by working with other pottery firms in the American Clay Products organization. By 1933, the company was renamed, the Nelson McCoy Pottery Company.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, McCoy was best known for its production of cookie jars. The original Mammy cookie jar which was also known as the Aunt Jemima-style cookie jar is arguably the most popular of all McCoy cookie jars. The first McCoy cookie jar produced is also one of the most valuable cookie jars in the secondary market today; the Mammy cookie jar can be valued at several hundreds of dollars.
Other cookie jars also command high prices on today’s market. For instance, the Weller firm also offered American housewives its Mammy With A Watermelon cookie jar which sells on the secondary market for $800 to $1,500. A Roseville cookie jar decorated with a relief image of freesia typically brings $450 from cookie jar enthusiasts on the vintage kitchenana market. And the famous Hull Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar regularly commands $350 to $500 from collectors.
In addition to the McCoy firm's famous figural cookie jars, McCoy planters, vases, and other utilitarian pottery wares remain popular with collectors. By the 1960s, McCoy was experiencing financial difficulties as the firm was unable to compete on the international import market. The McCoy firm was sold to The Mount Clemens Pottery Company in 1967 and then to the Lancaster Colony Corporation in 1974. McCoy made cookie jars from about 1939 until production ceased in 1987. In 1990, production ceased, and the McCoy company went out of business.
A mainstay in American kitchens following the post-World War II baby boom, cookie jars are lovely pieces of cultural history and represent fine collectibles of bygone days.
 Ph.D. antiques appraiser, author, award-winning TV personality, and TV talk show host, Dr. Lori presents antiques appraisal events nationwide and on luxury cruises worldwide. Seen on The Tonight Show, also watch Dr. Lori on the Fine Living Network and on the national TV morning show Daytime, weekdays on Atlanta’s ABC 2 WSB-DT at 9 am, Tampa’s NBC 8 at 10 am, and Jacksonville’s CW 17 at 6 am. Visit www.DrLoriV.com, become a fan at www.Facebook.com/DoctorLori, or call 888-431-1010.
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Cookie jars with nursery rhyme themes like Humpty Dumpty are among the most popular examples of collectible cookie jars from the post-war period.
Little Old Lady who lived
in a shoe cookie jar.
Little Red Riding Hood
cookie jar by Hull
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