Q: A friend bought me a cookie jar at an auction. It has Mickey on one side and Minnie on the other. The bottom of the jar states that it is a patented Walt Disney Product. There is no date on the jar, and I was wondering if you would research the age and let me know. It doesn’t look like the Mickey and Minnie Mouse that I know. It looks like it is from an earlier time.
Kay, Southport, North Carolina
A: This Mickey and Minnie cookie jar is known as a Turnabout, and it was made by Leeds China Co. of Chicago. They were licensed by Disney from 1944 to 1954, so the cookie jar would have been made during that period. On most of these cookie jars that I have seen, most of the paint has worn off through the years.
Dave Smith