Question:

Hi, I have the Blue Katrina Cookie Jar that was my grandmothers. I know it was made in the early 1940′s and there was a Blue, Yellow and a Green one was made a couple of years later. Could you tell me what these beautiful cookie jars sold for originally. I have tried to find some advertising from that time frame but so far have not found anything.

Thank you so much.

Margy.

Answer:

Sorry, I don’t have any retail ads for the Katrina cookie jar so I can’t say with certainty what the price to consumers may have been.  But I do have Red Wing’s wholesale price to stores that purchased these jars directly from the pottery.  The wholesale price listed for 1941 to 1944 was $24 for a dozen cookie jars.  That’s $2 per jar, and Red Wing often discounted their prices significantly depending on the total size of the store’s order.

Red Wing also made a series of fruit-shaped jars during the same period.  The wholesale price for them was $18 per dozen, and a 1941 promotional piece showed the retail price as $1.50 per jar.

Putting this all together it is safe to assume the retail price for the Katrina jar back in the day was less than $5, and most likely in the $2 to $4 range.

Larry