Lois Jurgens says goodbye to her salt-glazed 30-gallon Red Wing crock, surrounded by creamy white zinc-glazed pots up for auction (Photo Permission from Bramer Auction and Realty)
Like many elderly folks in the midwest whose families used stoneware crocks for sauerkraut, Lois Jurgens held onto one for 40 years.
It sat on her porch weathering decades of harsh Nebraska winters until early this month when she was planning for a yard sale.
She had a notion the heavy crock might be worth $100 if it could be put up for auction, instead of selling at a yard sale, so she called Ken Bramer. Coincidentally, his auction house had already secured dozens of antique Red Wing crocks for an event that would draw 300 excited bidders to Buffalo County on January 10th.
When the 90-year-old called Ken saying she had an old crock, he was hesitant, because all his promotional photos of items up for auction had already been printed and posted online. But, he thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll drive out and take a look.’
When he saw the huge 30 gallon Red Wing crock and looked closely at the details, he knew this would be the darling of the auction.
Lois told Ken she hoped maybe it could get $100 if it goes under his hammer—and, instead of giving her $100 on the spot, the honest businessman said he was confident they would get at least that sum.
“I think you’re going to be surprised.”
30-gallon Red Wing crock with stamps on the bottom and in blue at the top – Photo by Bramer Auction and Realty
The day of the auction was her 91st birthday, according to Colleen Williams, a Nebraska news host who first broke the story on Facebook. Lois was volunteering at church that morning, so she missed her own piece being sold, but she headed over as soon as she could.
When Ken saw Lois had arrived, he paused the auction to give her perhaps the best birthday present she’d ever received.
“We did a little better than $100,” he said in front of the delighted crowd. “We got you $32,000!”
Ken had known the 30-gallon crock with molded handles and butterfly design was “very rare”, especially because it was stamped with the company name twice—once on the top & once on the bottom.
Lois’s crock was also salt glazed, rather than zinc glazed. It’s estimated that only 20 percent of Red Wing’s salt glaze pieces were signed on the side. These tan colored wares were manufactured in Red Wing, Minnesota, before the turn of the century, beginning in 1877 until about 1900, according to RedWingCollectors.org.
“These primitive pieces were often decorated with artistic cobalt blue representations of items like leaves, butterflies, flowers, birds, etc. and sealed with a brown “Albany slip” glaze on the interior to keep the contents from seeping into the porous clay.”
Any irregularities can be highly prized by Red Wing Stoneware collectors—and because thousands of the crocks in various sizes were produced daily, there were bound to be some mistakes. Lois’s piece, being stamped twice with the Red Wing company name, was even more valuable.
“Selling that rare 30 gallon Red Wing crock was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things,” Ken wrote on the Bramer Auction and Realty Facebook page (above).
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“We are incredible grateful for the opportunity to work with that sweet, young lady!” he quipped.
One commenter wrote, “My favorite part of this story is that you didn’t just buy it from her for $100 and sell it yourself. It’s proof there are good people in this world.”
THIS IS NO CROCK: Share Lois’s True and Heartwarming Story on Social Media…
