9 Expensive Vintage Cookie Jars That Are Worth Looking Out For When Thrifting

Ceramic cookie jars are a fun way to bring in a vintage piece that serves wonderfully both as food storage and a stylish addition to your kitchen décor. These once-popular kitchenware pieces dominated the 20th century, allowing compact and fresh storage for baked goods, both homemade and store-bought. They were often whimsical and pop-culture friendly in their design, featuring popular figures and cartoon characters. While it's not difficult to find an abundance of cookie jars in your secondhand shopping endeavors, some may be worth more than others on the resale and collector markets. If you happen to find any of the jars and manufacturer pieces mentioned below, they could be worth more than you think. They include everything from luxe subscription-only collectible jars from the 1980s to 1950s nostalgic cartoon characters you should definitely watch out for while thrifting.

Some of the most popular can fetch several thousands of dollars if you resell them on online auction sites. These classic elements in home decor can also become adorable additions to your own kitchen, even if they're missing their lids or in poor condition. You can easily reuse vintage cookie jars by turning them into planters, utensil crocks, and other kinds of storage in your home.

One of the most popular vintage cookie jars from one of the most renowned 20th century pottery manufacturers, this pretty cookie jar is shaped like the famous fairytale character and can fetch around $300 to $500 in reseller markets. Full sets can be found with similar pricing that includes creamers, sugar bowls, and shakers. While the design evolved over the years with changes to the floral details and baskets, the rarest and more prized options among collectors involve a closed circular basket.

Treasure Craft's ceramic cookie jars were usually based on characters from pop culture and featured figures like Smokey the Bear and Felix the Cat. It also created jars of famous promotional figures like McDonalds' Grimace and The Hamburgler, as well as characters from popular midcentury entertainment like Disney and Star Trek. One of its most popular designs, released in the 1990s, was shaped like a clock and featured the words "Cookie Time" on the front. You can expect to pay up to $850 for a full set with the accompanying salt and pepper shakers.

These whimsical jars were sold in sets of canisters, the largest of which was the one designed for holding cookies. While the 1960s and 1970s produced many designs featuring his popular fungi, these jars were known for their rounded shape, mushroom cap topper, and detailed raised designs around the entire surface of the jar. While you can find some of the smaller jars priced lower at thrift stores and other secondhand venues, the bigger jars may cost you more, with sets that include the largest jar designed for cookies generally priced around $150.

One of the most coveted spice jar sets among collectors, Lenox House also made cookie jars in its popular house-shaped line of collectible jars released in a subscription model. The cookie jars are larger, but have the same quaint design details that make them especially popular as holiday decor. While Lenox still makes cookie jars today, the house-shaped ones were discontinued in the early 1990s, making them popular among nostalgic adults who remember them from childhood kitchens.

These adorable pig jars were manufactured by the Shawnee Pottery Company starting in 1943, featuring happy pigs posed in anthropomorphic poses with details like farmer clothing and floral decals. Jars with gold-trimmed details were also popular, and go for slightly higher resale prices than other jars. One jar was notorious for netting nearly $7,000 in an auction, but most will run in the $200 to 750 range.

This 1973 cookie jar designed by Holt Howard is a cookie jar that owes much of its popularity today to the 1990s series "Friends," where it was posed prominently in the background of kitchen scenes. This has made some of these jars, even in fair to poor condition, extremely valuable to collectors and fans of the show. They've been seen priced as high as $16,000 in good condition.

Another popular manufacturer of novelty character cookie jars, some of American Bisque's most popular designs from the midcentury include jars modeled on Hanna Barbera faves Popeye, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Yogi Bear. In addition, the brand's playful nursery rhyme-inspired "Cow Jumped Over the Moon" design is often seen at auction and on reselling websites for around $500.

This company produced many cute and novelty cookie jars from the 1930s through the 1970s, including fairytale, book, and nursery rhyme characters like Humpty Dumpty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Raggedy Ann. One of the brand's more unusual designs, a long circus horse-shaped jar with a cat balancing on top, has been found with an asking price of around $500.

These automotive cookie jars from the late 1970s and early '80s are highly collectible, and for many years, were spotted in the homes of high society figures and the Hollywood elite. Designed by artist Glenn Appleman, the jars featured a horizontal design — the entire top portion lifted off to provide storage space for baked goods. Most models will cost you several hundred dollars, with some of the rarest and most desired designs, like the Rolls Royce, bring in close to $1,800 on resale sites.