Most of us have at least a few memories of “the cookie jar”from our childhood days. Since I grew up in a family of ten, a standard cookie jar wouldn’t begin to hold enough cookies to last more than a few minutes in our household. My mother’s batches of chocolate chip, peanut butter, and frosted cut-out sugar cookies at holiday time were store in oversized snap-top plastic bins, but at grandma’s house we could look forward to her opening the cookie jar atop her kitchen counter and producing a sweet treat for us.
Hers was a gift from my father during the 1970’s and so of a more recent vintage than those I am highlighting here, but the effect on my childhood delight was nonetheless one of enchantment. It’s hard to say if the better part of getting a cookie from grandma’s house was the the cookie itself or a visit to that infamous “Cookie Safe” cookie jar, the contents guarded by watchful bulldog who pulled double duty as the jar’s top.
- Poppytrail Lamb From JI Design & Apple Creek Road Vintage
Cookie jars in the United States evolved from biscuit jars of the Victorian era, an opulent time when the dining and tea table was set with specialized serving utensils and tableware. European biscuit jars were made of sterling silver and cut glass, usually included a bail handle, and were placed on the table during use.
As Americans adapted the biscuit jar, the container set atop a counter or shelf in the kitchen, perhaps due to a less formal style in eating. Instead of a sit-down tea time, we’d grab a cookie on the go between tasks or during breaks in playtime. In the 1920’s a green, pink or clear glass jar, usually with a screw-top metal lid, was standard in most kitchens.
- Kittens on Ball of Yarn From TimeSpan Treasure
- Ceramic Tiger, Available From Circa Company
During the Great Depression, heavy stoneware cookie jars were produced, and in the 1930’s ceramic cookie jars began to appear. Dozens of potteries such as McCoy, Shawnee, and Roseville produced colorful whimsical figurative cookie jars featuring people and animals.
By the early 70’s, the days of original design had passed, though reproductions and inexpensive mass-produced containers continue to abound. If your Collector’s Sweet Tooth is aching to begin hunting for a vintage cookie jar for your own, you might want to take some time to learn about the variety of pieces available.
All this thinking about cookie jars has got me nostalgic for an old-fashioned homemade cookie, and so I’d like to share a peanut butter cookies recipe from the 1935 edition of Fanny Farmer’s Cookbook, one which my mother used, and which always garnered me a blue ribbon at the county fair whenever I entered them!
- Lion & Lollipop Available From Mass Ave Vintage
Have I gotten you wondering about a cookie jar from your own past? Here’s a page which includes many of the most popular and collectible brands, from the website Collector Cookie Jars. Why not see if you can locate that familiar piece?
Has our story spark a “cookie jar memory” for you? Let us know with a note in the Comments section below!