Question:
Please identify: Cookie Jar, approx. 14" tall. Deep aqua blue glaze. Stylized flowers and boy and girl dancing as decorations. The girl wear red boots. Excellent condition. Can you tell me more about it and the value? Thank you very much for your time. Carla

Answer: According to a July 1942 sales brochure, you have an "Incised Peasant" Cookie Jar. It is one of three items produced in the Incised Peasant design. The other is a Munch Jar (low and squat in shape) and a large salad bowl. The bowl is the only piece that is marked Red Wing. All three items were available in three colors: Brown, Green and White. Unlike most Red Wing hand painted pottery, the peasant figures were cold painted (over the glaze). Because the colors are not sealed under the glaze they are easily removed. After 60-some years many of these pieces have lost a considerable amount of their original paint .

The Incised Peasant line is not rare. The bowl and cookie jar are quite common, while the munch jar is found less frequently from what I’ve seen. These pieces in excellent condition and with most of the original paint intact would be worth $25 to $40, with the white color on the low end, green on the high end, and brown somewhere in the middle. Loss of paint detracts from the value, as do any chips and cracks.

Larry