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jessiesue_gw

Cookie Jar I can't Identify

jessiesue
12 years ago

I recently found this at Goodwill and have been unable to find out anything about it. It in good shape. Does appear to be old. There was also an soup tureen and pitcher/bowl set. Bue I didn't want them.

Here is a link that might be useful: cookie jar

Comments (27)

  • lindac
    12 years ago

    How big is it? Cookie jars generally aren't too old and seldom come as part of a set. Could it be a sugar bowl? or perhaps a biscuit jar?
    What is the mark on the bottom?
    I think maybe you better go back and get the rest of the set!!
    Linda C

  • calliope
    12 years ago

    I have some 100 year old cookie jars...so 'old' is relative. It's old enough that it's crazing, unless someone terribly abused it. Linda is right in that they seldom come in a set. Are you saying the pattern matches the soup tureen and bowl and pitcher set?

    You can see a saucer behind it for a size reference, but the angle at which the photo is taken makes that unreliable. I do have a cookie jar not quite six inches tall to the lip and I know it's a cookie jar it's Marked McCoy and says COOKIES across the front. LOL. So, they can be diminuative. However like Linda says, if it looks small and sort of like a cookie jar, it may very well be a biscuit barrel, especially if it's European or quite old. Looks too large to be a sugar.

    Please give some dimensions, and any marks on the bottom, even if it's only an imprint would be helpful in aging it or guessing at the maker. It's rather pretty.

  • pump_toad
    12 years ago

    It would be helpful if you would post the dimension. I am thinking it could be part of a old chamber set since there is a bowl and pitcher. Actually, what you are calling a tureen could be a chamber pot.

  • lindac
    12 years ago

    Good call on the Chamber set!!...It would be the slop jar...if it's big enough!

  • calliope
    12 years ago

    Seen some pretty fancy slop jars, and used a few when I was a little kid, but never one with a fluted top. But the tureen..........well could be. Please tell me it didn't have a ladle. ack

  • lindac
    12 years ago

    There were lots of fancy slop jars, fluted, gold trimmed....the whole ball of wax. They weren't all white enamelware with a bail handle.
    I'll just bet it was a Chamber set!
    Linda C

    Here is a link that might be useful: Slop jars

  • jessiesue
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    It is 12 inches tall to the top of the handle and 10 inches across the top. Ii does appear to be a chamber set. The "soup tureen" looks like some in the link. The bowl and pitcher was gone but the other was still there yesterday. May have to go back in the morning. Are you saying this might not be something I would want in the kitchen. How old would it be. As for the value I thought it was pretty and splurged and gave 10 dollars for it, after all it was my birthday. And it has no markings on the bottom. This ole Ky girl never heard of a chamber set, but we did have a two holer out back down the path. HaHa Thanks for all the info.

  • calliope
    12 years ago

    You bet there were some fancy ones, it was a very common item in one's chambers and why shouldn't it be pretty?

    No fluted slop jars were not common and for obvious reasons. Adults could crouch over them but kids sat on them and I've never seen one without a handle, again for obvious reasons. It's something you are pretty careful carrying when you go to dump it out. This one would be a pistol to empty.

    The soup tureen likely was a slop jar if it matched the bowl and pitcher and that's why I asked if all the pieces were the same pattern. It did enter my mind. The item you bought and pictured likely is not. Again, is the item you pictured the exact same pattern as the 'tureen' and bowl and pitcher? Actually there are cases of chamber sets having the same pattern as chinaware.

    I think ten dollars was a very good price for it. I wouldn't have fliched at thirty or forty. It's not modern and is quite pretty. Would I display it in my kitchen even on the off chance it might have been a chamber pot? Yeah. That's what soap and disinfectant are all about. Would I put cookies in it? I don't use my old cookie jars for cookies anyway. I have a modest collection of them and the lids are prone for dinging up and that impacts the value, so no I wouldn't.

  • Fori
    12 years ago

    Happy birthday! As long as it doesn't gross you out, I think it'd be pretty in a kitchen. If a visitor looks at it funny, give them a knowing wink. Perhaps don't put cookies in it...maybe dog biscuits. Dogs aren't picky. :)

  • bulldinkie
    12 years ago

    Thats what I was thinking,chamber pot.

  • justlinda
    12 years ago

    Our country cottage had chamberpots under the beds so we didn't have to make the trip outside to the outhouse, but this looks more like a slop pot to me. The chamberpots that I remember had a bigger diameter around the top opening.

    Would look wonderful on the kitchen counter as a "SLOP POT".

  • pauline13
    12 years ago

    I've seen wash bowls and pitchers, but if I ever saw a chamberpot or a slop pot, I didn't know what it was.
    What is the difference between a chamberpot and a slop jar as far as their original use was concerned?

  • calliope
    12 years ago

    Generally a slop jar might have been used to pour off the dirty water from the bowl after you've washed up. A chamber pot is for going potty in the middle of the night if you've no inclination to go out to the privy behind the house. It was a very common practice when you had small children to let them use a chamber pot. We used to have to take a torch of paper and burn under the seat in the two holer at the farm because black widows liked to nest under them. Not something you'd want to do with little kids who have to go immediately, so you always kept a chamber pot under their beds. Lots of farms had running water or pitcher pumps with sinks, even when they didn't have indoor bathrooms. So, there was no need for pitchers and basins, just potties. What term you used for what also depends on the local vernacular. Most rural folks simply called a chamber pot a slop jar. That's why I said chamber pots don't have fluted tops, because little people sit on them. They also have handles of some sort, because somebody has to empty them and that's treacherous work. rofl.

  • lindac
    12 years ago

    A chamber pot is very very often shaped like a large coffee mug....hence the sobriquet "thunder mug".
    A slop jar may look like a large "cookie jar" with a fluted top and handles on the sides or it may look like a large lidded pail with a bail handle.
    Don't know, but I suspect....that the chamber sets with the matching soap dish and sponge bowl and toothbrush holder, as well as a water pitcher and wash bowl, used the slop jar for little more than wash water, whereas with the more utilitarian sets, the slop jar was used as a toilet.

    I am amazed by how long the thunder mug under the bed lasted. My grandfather lived in a house with plumbing and an indoor toilet since at least 1930, but he used a thunder mug until the day he died....somewhere after 1960.

    Indoor plumbing was a long time coming to many parts of the US. My mother, born in 1912, never lived in a house without indoor plumbing, nor did my father born in 1905...They lived in New Jersey. My husband's parents lived with indoor plumbing since mid 1920's...in rural Iowa and Minnesota. But as recently as 1970, I knew of blocks in this town that had no running water and 10 years after that of towns in southern Iowa who had no plumbing at all.
    Wonder if someone out there is still making thunder mugs?
    Linda c

  • calliope
    12 years ago

    And the one in the picture is missing handles. It's not for toting much of anywhere to empty.

  • justlinda
    12 years ago

    Thanks for stirring up the memory...My grandmother called it a "thunder mug", and yup, it had a handle and a lid.

  • wyocmr
    12 years ago

    Chamber pot, huh? My gramma called it a "punkin shell." Prob'ly so company wouldn't know what we were talking about if we mentioned it.

  • lindac
    12 years ago

    Hmm....I don't see any handles either....

  • jessiesue
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    No it don't have handles. The pitcher & bowl and the other piece are the same pattern. The piece I have has a lip were the lid sets, seems it would make for a akward empty. The other piece does have the one handle and a lid. I would love to know who made it and how old, but with no markings I guess it will be hard to find out.

  • Frances Molyneux
    8 years ago

    I have one just like this, only with blue trim. Were you ever able to identify the piece? I have searched relentlessly to no avail. I hope that you can shed some light on this mystery item:)

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Frances M., are the flutes equal all around the rim? Maybe it's the angle of the photo above, but it looks as if there is a pour spout on each side. Would it have been a hot water pot? Hot water could have been poured in from a bucket, to be held until the user was ready to wash up, or possibly the hot water was to be mixed with cold water from the pitcher. (Or vice-versa.)

  • Frances Molyneux
    8 years ago

    It has pour spouts on either side and the rest of the rim is fluted. I am at a loss as to where I should look for it next as I have exhausted all of my ideas. It really is very pretty and I would love to be able to identify it.

  • jemdandy
    8 years ago

    I do not think it is a chamber pot (thunder mug). Chamber pots were designed to allow a person to sit on its top, therefore, it would not have a fluted rim to punch your tush. If it did have a fancy frilly dilly top, the top would have curled outward to the extent that the top edge would have been near parallel with horizontal. However, it could be part of dresser set if there were provision for pouring water. A complete set would have a water container, wash pan, soap dish, and possibly a shaving mug with brush.

    The piece may have held treats such as candies or small diameter cookies.

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    This one on eBay UK has the same shape, and similar rim, but looks more upscale, with handles and gold bands:

    ANTIQUE K T K CO SEMI-VITREOUS PORCELAIN CHAMBER POT + LID GREEN FLOWERS KNOWLES

    Also similar items in this link: Toilet ware by Homer Laughlin

  • lindac92
    8 years ago

    AAh....just as I said....slop jar....and likely by a company that's a contemporaty of Homer Laughlin....maybe Knowles Taylor and knowles?

  • jemdandy
    8 years ago

    Now that this has been identified, I hope you will not be using it for a cookie jar. soup tureen, or fondue pot (unless for a Halloween party)! LOL

  • lindac92
    8 years ago

    Why??...It's not a toilet....it's a jar for the water you used to wash your face and shave. And with a wash with a chlorox solution...I sure don't have a problem.