American Bisque Cookie Jars - a prolific cookie jar manufacturer, second only to McCoy, American Bisque created detailed cookie jars most of which were airbrushed glazed with very few painted in solid colors giving American Bisque cookie jars a distinctive look. American Bisque Pottery was formed in 1919 in West Virginia but began making cookie jars around 1937 when a flood destroyed all their stock.

Identification of American Bisque Cookie Jars can be confusing as most of the jars were marked just U.S.A. and occasionally with a number. One of the more distinctive features of most of the jars is the unglazed, wedge shapes on the bottom of the jars which can help with jar identification. However, to further the confusion is the association of American Bisque with three other pottery companies, American Pottery, Ludowici Celedon and Terrace Ceramics making it even more difficult to identify which jar was made by which company.

For more information on American Bisque Cookie Jars I recommend American Bisque: A Collectors Guide With Prices by Mary Jane Giacomini.

McCoy Cookie Jars - Most McCoy cookie jars can be very plainly decorated but are made from very detailed molds. Cold painting and decals were used frequently on their jars, so be extremely careful if you must clean these jars as they can be very delicate.

Most McCoy cookie jars are marked, however they used many different marks including a McCoy mark with raised lettering, a USA mark, both the USA and McCoy raised lettering and the use of three wide bands across the bottom of the jar. One mark they never used on their cookie jars was a Brush McCoy mark.

For more information on McCoy Cookie Jars, I recommend the following:

The Complete Cookie Jar Book
5th edition by Mike Schneider
Not just for McCoy Cookie Jars, but as a reference for vintage cookie jars in general. Would be a great addition to your collectible cookie jars library.

Warmans McCoy Pottery: Identification and Price Guide
by Mark F. Moran

Shawnee Cookie Jars -was located in Zanesville, Ohio from 1937 to 1961. It is not suprising to find the same Shawnee cookie jars, made from the same mold, decorated differently. It is this decoration variety within the same cookie jars that are sought after by some collectors. The Smiley Pig cookie jar is one example of the same cookie jar with decoration variations and is Shawnees most popular jar.

Shawnee closed in 1961, and the molds were bought and used by Terrace Ceramics. However, it is easy to tell the difference between the two because the Terrace Ceramics cookie jars were decorated differently than the original Shawnee cookie jars.

For more information on Shawnee cookie jars, I recommend: