Ms Dow Antiques Tique Talk by Marianne Dow: My Vintage Cookie Jars

I'm sure I've had over 1,000 cookie jars, and have about 150-200 (give or take a few) left. I went up to my storage room, and was pleasantly surprised. They are just so darned cute! But I'm trying to down-size my treasure trove, and I can't keep everything, so I grabbed a couple dozen gems to start with.

Cookie jars are one of the very first things I collected, way back when I first got into antiquing back in California. I remember we went to a local auction, and everyone there had their cookie jar price guides with them, and they were so intense, and prices seemed so high to us novices. It was fascinating!

The next weekend we had a garage sale, and this friendly guy asked us if we had any cookie jars, which made us exclaim "You should have been at this auction!" Well, it turned out he had, as they were HIS cookie jars. Then he showed us the check he got-- and that was it, we were officially cookie jar hounds!

His name was Bud, and we will always remember him fondly. He gave us some great advice, which I still try to go by, and that is "Buy it right, so you can't get hurt." So we initiated our $5.00 rule-- buy any cookie jar that was $5.00 or less. I told you this was "back in the day". That's how we accumulated so many cookie jars.

I've had fun collecting them, but I also enjoy selling them, and knowing they are going to collectors who really appreciate them. I guess we'll see how they do on ebay this month.