Cookie jar
Encyclopedia
Cookie jars are utilitarian or decorative ceramic or glass jar
s often found in American
and Canadian kitchens. In the United Kingdom
, they are known as biscuit barrels or biscuit jars. If they are made out tin
, they are called biscuit tin
s. While used to store actual cookie
s or biscuit
s, they are sometimes employed to store other edible items like candy or dog treats, or non-edible items like currency
(in the manner of a piggy bank
).
since the latter part of the 18th century. They were often made of glass with metal lids. Cookie jars became popular in the America around the time of the Great Depression
in 1929. Early American cookie jars were made of glass with metal screw-on lids. In the 1930s, stoneware became predominant as the material for American cookie jars. Early cookie jars typically have simple cylindrical shapes and were often painted with floral or leaf decorations or emblazoned with colorful decals.
The Brush Pottery Company of Zanesville, Ohio
is generally recognized as producing the first ceramic cookie jar. The jar was green with the word "Cookies" embossed on the front. Most cookie jar manufacturers followed Brush's move to ceramics in the late 1930s, and designs became more innovative with figures, fruits, vegetables, animals, and other whimsical interpretations such as the Hull "Little Red Riding Hood" predominating. The golden period for American cookie jar production covers the years from 1940 until 1970, with several manufacturers rising to prominence.
McCoy
cookie jars (produced in Roseville, Ohio
) are highly prized among collectors. The company made cookie jars from about 1939 until production ceased in 1987, and the first jar produced ("Mammy") became, in time, one of the most collectible and valuable.
American Bisque of Williamstown, West Virginia
is recognized as another top manufacturer of cookie jars. They are particularly distinguished for the many cartoon characters cookie jars.
Other well respected US manufacturers of cookie jars include Red Wing of Minnesota
, Metlox Pottery
of California
, Abingdon Pottery of Illinois
, and Shawnee Pottery of Ohio
.
amassed a collection of 175 ceramic cookie jars. These were in a multitude of shapes and figures. Most were purchased at flea market
s. Warhol's collection was featured in a prominent news magazine and sparked an interest in collecting cookie jars. When asked in the 1970s why he pursued the 1930s and 1940s jars, Warhol said simply, "They are time pieces." At an auction
of his apartment's contents in 1987, Warhol's collection of cookie jars realized $250,000.
Jar
A jar is a rigid, approximately cylindrical container with a wide mouth or opening. Jars are typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic. They are used for foods, cosmetics, medications, and chemicals that are relatively thick or viscous...
s often found in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canadian kitchens. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, they are known as biscuit barrels or biscuit jars. If they are made out tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
, they are called biscuit tin
Biscuit tin
Biscuit tins are utilitarian or decorative containers used to package and sell biscuits and some confectionery. They are commonly found in households in the United Kingdom and commonwealth countries.- Origin and history :...
s. While used to store actual cookie
Cookie
In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have...
s or biscuit
Biscuit
A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....
s, they are sometimes employed to store other edible items like candy or dog treats, or non-edible items like currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
(in the manner of a piggy bank
Piggy bank
Piggy bank is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage receptacle; it is most often, but not exclusively, used by children. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a "still bank" as opposed to the "mechanical banks" popular in the early 20th century. These items are also often used...
).
Origin and history
Cookie jars, also known as biscuit barrels or jars, have been used in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
since the latter part of the 18th century. They were often made of glass with metal lids. Cookie jars became popular in the America around the time of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in 1929. Early American cookie jars were made of glass with metal screw-on lids. In the 1930s, stoneware became predominant as the material for American cookie jars. Early cookie jars typically have simple cylindrical shapes and were often painted with floral or leaf decorations or emblazoned with colorful decals.
The Brush Pottery Company of Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville, Ohio
Zanesville is a city in and the county seat of Muskingum County, Ohio, United States. The population was 25,586 at the 2000 census.Zanesville was named after Ebenezer Zane, who had constructed Zane's Trace, a pioneer road through present-day Ohio...
is generally recognized as producing the first ceramic cookie jar. The jar was green with the word "Cookies" embossed on the front. Most cookie jar manufacturers followed Brush's move to ceramics in the late 1930s, and designs became more innovative with figures, fruits, vegetables, animals, and other whimsical interpretations such as the Hull "Little Red Riding Hood" predominating. The golden period for American cookie jar production covers the years from 1940 until 1970, with several manufacturers rising to prominence.
McCoy
McCoy (pottery)
McCoy is a brand of pottery that was produced in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries.-Origins:In April 1910, Nelson McCoy , with help from his father and along with five stockholders, established the Nelson McCoy Sanitary and Stoneware Company in Roseville, Ohio...
cookie jars (produced in Roseville, Ohio
Roseville, Ohio
Roseville is a village in Muskingum and Perry counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, along Moxahala Creek. The population was 1,936 at the 2000 census. Roseville is served by a branch of the Muskingum County Library System.-History:...
) are highly prized among collectors. The company made cookie jars from about 1939 until production ceased in 1987, and the first jar produced ("Mammy") became, in time, one of the most collectible and valuable.
American Bisque of Williamstown, West Virginia
Williamstown, West Virginia
Williamstown is a city in Wood County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,996 at the 2000 census...
is recognized as another top manufacturer of cookie jars. They are particularly distinguished for the many cartoon characters cookie jars.
Other well respected US manufacturers of cookie jars include Red Wing of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Metlox Pottery
Metlox Pottery
Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California. It was founded in 1927 by T. C. Prouty and his son Willis Prouty, originally as a producer of outdoor ceramic signs. After the...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Abingdon Pottery of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and Shawnee Pottery of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
.
American cookie jar manufacturers
- Abingdon Pottery
- American Bisque
- Brush Pottery
- Hull
- MetloxMetlox PotteryMetlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California. It was founded in 1927 by T. C. Prouty and his son Willis Prouty, originally as a producer of outdoor ceramic signs. After the...
- McCoyMcCoy (pottery)McCoy is a brand of pottery that was produced in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries.-Origins:In April 1910, Nelson McCoy , with help from his father and along with five stockholders, established the Nelson McCoy Sanitary and Stoneware Company in Roseville, Ohio...
- Red Wing
- Shawnee Pottery
American cookie jar themes
- Advertising (Coca-ColaCoca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, Kellogg'sKellogg CompanyKellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...
) - Character (Mammy, Clown)
- Funny animal (Rabbit in Hat, Pink Poodle)
- Nursery rhyme/storybook (CinderellaCinderella"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
, Red Riding Hood) - Holidays and seasons (ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, Jack o' Lantern, SnowmanSnowmanA snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture. They are customarily built by children as part of a family project in celebration of winter. In some cases, participants in winter festivals will build large numbers of snowmen...
) - Cultural icons (ElvisElvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, SupermanSupermanSuperman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, I Love LucyI Love LucyI Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, Cookie MonsterCookie MonsterCookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" . He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples,...
) - Everyday objects (House, Truck, Butter Churn)
Andy Warhol
Artist Andy WarholAndy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
amassed a collection of 175 ceramic cookie jars. These were in a multitude of shapes and figures. Most were purchased at flea market
Flea market
A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...
s. Warhol's collection was featured in a prominent news magazine and sparked an interest in collecting cookie jars. When asked in the 1970s why he pursued the 1930s and 1940s jars, Warhol said simply, "They are time pieces." At an auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
of his apartment's contents in 1987, Warhol's collection of cookie jars realized $250,000.
Other uses
- Sometimes the phrase "keep your hands out of the cookie jar" is a way of telling someone to stay out of other people's business, even when to do so seems lucrative.
- In financial reporting, "cookie jar accounting" is the practice of increasing reserves during good years and eating them up during bad years. This process of income smoothing is totally ethical, but non-disclosure - especially to consistently reach performance targets - is illegal.
- In computer programmingComputer programmingComputer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
, a "cookie jar" is an area of memory set aside for storing cookiesMagic cookieA magic cookie or just cookie for short, is a token or short packet of data passed between communicating programs, where the data is typically not meaningful to the recipient program. The contents are opaque and not usually interpreted until the recipient passes the cookie data back to the sender...
.
Popular culture
- "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?"Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" or the Cookie Jar Song is a sing-along song/game, sung usually with young children in a pre-school, school, or day camp setting. The song is an infinite-loop motif, each verse directly feeds into the next...
" is an elementary schoolElementary schoolAn elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
song. - The American band Gym Class HeroesGym Class HeroesGym Class Heroes is an American hip hop rock band from Geneva, New York. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold." Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt.The group formed...
wrote a song called Cookie JarCookie Jar (song)"Cookie Jar" is the second single from the Gym Class Heroes album, The Quilt. The song features The-Dream singing the chorus with Travis McCoy...
which was released as a singleSingle (music)In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in 20082008 in music2008 was a huge year in music history with the emergence of pop superstars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry into the mainstream. Also, this is the year that is widely agreed upon by critics as the start of the fall of hip hop from the mainstream and the rise of Synthpop into the mainstream due to acts such...
. - Jack JohnsonJack Johnson (musician)Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...
(musician) wrote a song called Cookie Jar which was released on the album On and On (2003)