Katrina Cookie Jar | Red Wing Collectors Society | Red Wing Pottery, Union Stoneware, North Star, Art Pottery, Dinnerware

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Question:
Greetings; I have a "Katrina" cookie jar. The only markings on it are "Red Wing U.S.A." on the bottom. Also, the only photo of this Item I can find shows it with a yellow-ish green and brown glaze. Mine is blue-grey and royal blue. How can I tell if it’s authentic? Thank you for your time, Ken Maluchnik

Answer: Ken, the "Katrina" cookie jar was introduced by Red Wing in 1941, along with her friends Friar Tuck and Pierre the Chef. Price lists from 1942, 1943 and 1944 show them as being available in blue, yellow, and tan colors. An undated brochure, probably from the mid to late 1940s adds green as an available color. These three cookie jars were great sellers for Red Wing. Many thousands of them were made and production continued into the mid 1950s.

While these cookie jars are not at all rare, jars in excellent condition are not easy to find in any color. After years of use (often by the small hands of children more interested in the contents than the jar), these jars are usually chipped or cracked and have grease stains. The "wings" on Katrina’s hat are especially vulnerable to breakage. A Katrina cookie jar in excellent condition would be worth around $100 in the yellow or tan colors, with another $25 or so for blue. Green would be worth more because the color is less common.

From the description you’ve provided I have no reason to think your Katrina jar is not authentic. The colors you describe are accurate for a blue Katrina jar. Over the years several different marks were used on these jars; your Red Wing USA mark indicates it was most likely made later in production. Earlier jars are usually marked with an ink stamp and sometimes include the patent numbers for the jar. To my knowledge the full sized Katrina jar has not been reproduced. At least one other company made a similar jar that could potentially be mistaken for a Katrina but it is not marked Red Wing. Small sized reproduction jars (much smaller than the original) have been made in recent years, but the ones I’ve seen are properly marked and could not be confused with an authentic Red Wing Katrina jar.

Larry