Are you interested in Little Red Riding Hood cookie jars? Read on to discover one of Hull Pottery's contributions to figurinal cookie jars....
Do you remember Little Red Riding Hood? The fairy tale, first published in France in 1697, remains a favorite today. The story is about a little girl who goes to visit her grandmother carrying a basket full of food and gets eaten up by a wolf for her troubles. In some versions, a woodcutter or hunter cuts the wolf open and saves Little Red Riding Hood for a happier ending. This story worked its way into the Hull Pottery Company in Crooksville, Ohio, during the early 1940's and from there, into homes and kitchens across the United States.
"Character-driven" or figurine cookie jars started becoming popular during the late 1930's. Many pottery companies, including Hull, took advantage of the "craze" by introducing cookie jars in the shape of teapots, clowns, and of course, Little Red Riding Hood. In 1943, Louise E. Bauer took out a patent for the design of Hull's Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar.
Hull Pottery made two types of Riding Hood cookie jars, one with Red carrying an open basket, and one with Red carrying a closed basket. Interestingly, Hull Pottery just manufactured most the blanks and sent them on to Regal China and Novelty Co. in Chicago, Illinois, to be glazed and decorated. The resulting jars were so charming that many collectors own more than one, valuing them for variations in decorations. Cookie jars can be found with only a clear glaze on a rare occasion, perhaps made as a test, to highly detailed girls with sweet eyelashes and skirts highlighted by flowers.
Hull expanded the line beyond cookie jars. They made grease jars with the Big, Bad Wolf sitting on top, licking his nasty lips, and also basket-shaped grease jars. Little Red Riding Hood stands atop sugar, coffee, and tea containers. There are several sizes of salt and pepper shakers, all decorated differently. Red turned into a milk pitcher, a teapot, a wall pocket, and a mustard jar with a spoon. She also metamorphosed into sugars and creamers.
If you are not a collector, you might think that this obsession with Little Red Riding Hood is rather odd. However, there is definitely money involved. Book values on Red's cookie jars range from roughly $375 to $1,300, depending on the flower decoration and whether Red's basket is opened or closed. The four and one-half inch shakers run about $1,350. The Red Riding Hood cereal container can cost you $1,000. The Big, Bad Wolf grease jar goes for $1,000 while the basket grease jar can catch a whopping $2,700. Naturally, prices of individual pieces are going to vary according to the condition of the piece, the decorations, the market at the time of purchase, and the desire of an individual collector to own a particular piece.
If you happen to look in a closet and find a Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar that grandma gave you years ago, do not be tempted to chuck it or send it to Goodwill. First, figure out who the maker is. Turn the piece over. If it was manufactured by Hull, it should have Hull's name incised on the bottom. If it is a Hull, do not panic and drop it. If you love it, you should keep it. If you do not, you might want to consider selling it to a collector who will. The choice is yours.
