Many cookie jar collectors answers the question, “What jar started it all?” with some variation of, “Grandmother’s cookie jar.”

I myself do not collect cookie jars — yet. The answer for “Why not?” is that I have not yet found my grandmother’s cookie jar which we all called ‘the cookie lady.’ (Sadly, no one in my family has grandma’s cookie lady. Upon my grandmother’s death my grandfather was found taking a sledge hammer to her belongings to sort out his grief. A terrible loss turned into additional losses for us all.)

Perhaps the connection between grandmother’s and cookies is more anecdotal than scientific, but it is a strong one. I simply cannot start my collection without finding grandma’s jar. Anything else would be sacrilegious.

Like many lost family heirlooms, cookie lady was never turned upside down to find her maker’s mark and so finding her is all about searching by her description. Cookie Lady was a ceramic cookie jar who resembled Raggedy Ann, only her hair was yellow. She looks quite a bit like this one… but not quite. (I don’t recall the flowers on her apron, and the hair was lighter — though the tilt of the head and blue of the dress seem just right.)

Being unable to find Cookie Lady has been frustrating. Not only do I not have her, but I’ve found (too) many other cookie jars to covet.

This is the wonderful thing about cookie jars — they come in nearly every character, style, and theme you can imagine.

Cookie jars have been around a long time having evolved from the British biscuit jars of the 1800’s. The decorative cookie jars first appeared on the Americana scene during the early 1930s when Depression Era housewives began baking more cookies at home rather than buying them at the bakery and so needed a container to store them and keep them fresh. Most of these cookie jars were pottery pieces which looked like bean pots. But by the 1940s figural cookie jars were being made. These cookie jars of animals, fruits, vegetables, people and other objects not only became very popular then, they created the cookie jar collecting craze of today.

Many of these vintage cookie jars now have their decorative paint worn off. This is because they were ‘cold painted.’ Cold paint refers to paint applied after the pottery piece has been both glazed and fired. Because this painting is done after firing and is not fired (heated) itself it is called cold paint. While this was commonly done to save money for the pottery makers, what you have is paint applied over a glaze so it easily washes off. Because this was such a common manufacturing method, most cookie jar collectors expect such wear and are more accepting of such missing paint than they are of chips. (Vintage pieces with cold paint intact obviously sell for much higher prices.)

The greatest output of American pottery cookie jars occurred from the 1940s to the mid 1970s and is called the golden period for American cookie jar production. While this period offered the most cookie jars, there simply are not enough to go around for collectors. This not only drives the prices up, but has created high demand for reproduction pottery cookie jars. (Tip: If the cold paint looks too good to be true, it may be a repro.) For those collectors who simply must have a cookie jar like grandma’s, this may be the only way to get one at an affordable price.

Even those who don’t have these vintage pieces in their memories are falling in love with the old storybook characters, vintage apples and other classic cookie jars.

While many kitchen gadgets have been replaced over the years and even salt and pepper shakers seem to be less decoratively stylized than in years gone by, cookie jars are still being made as whimsical and decorative pieces.

Along with reproductions of classic cookie jars there are artist cookie jars, new limited edition cookie jars, and many other new decorative cookie jars made every year. Nearly every Disney character has a cookie jar. As does almost every family movie released now a days — including action figure and Star Wars cookie jars. And we even have musical and talking cookie jars too.

In fact, cookie jars are so popular that they are one of the few household items which actually gain in value.

Even those with no real love of cookie jars may find themselves adding a jar to their collection. Along with the obvious areas of animal and character collections (Collin, need a Batman Cookie Jar?), there are celebrity cookie jars, advertising cookie jars, holiday and seaonal cookie jars, and even cultural cookie jars (including Black Americana cookie jars). Others may find themselves adding cookie jars to their McCoy or other pottery or glass collections. And of course, those who collect dishes or tableware may find themselves quickly lured into the matching cookie jar. (Once I find a copy of the Cookie Lady, I can then add the Jack & The Beanstalk cookie jar to my Batlin collection.)

Made of plastic, glass, and ceramic, the best thing about cookie jars are their decorative charm. The negative things about collecting cookie jars are they are large, they need to be dusted, and they are so popular the prices can be quite high. But their charm, variety and warm fuzzy memories outweigh space considerations, price and even dusting duties — making cookie jars place consistently top the lists of the most popular collectibles.

All of this begs the question, “When you’re the grandma, what’s your cookie jar going to be?”

Remember, it’s going to live on forever in memory, so chose wisely!

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 6:38 am and is filed under collecting fyi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.