Brush Brown Cow My wife

Brush Brown Cow
by Mike Ellis

My wife (Lynda) and I have been collecting cookie jars for about 5 or 6 years. A few years ago we were going through an antique and collectible shop. We came across this Brush Brown Cow. The cow had both tips of the horns chipped a little. The jar was priced at $33. We looked it over and hemmed and hawed. We finally decided to purchase the cow. But, we made one big mistake. We also decided to leave it on the shelf and look around a little more. We looked around for about 10 more minutes. Once we were done, we went back to get it and to our dismay, it was gone. We looked around and noticed that someone had it at the counter buying it. We couldn't believe it. Ever since then we cringe when we think about it.

The week of July 6th to July 11th, we went to Brimfield, MA to the big antique and collectible show. We came across another Brush Brown Cow. The people wanted $175. I looked it over and noticed that it had a chip on the rim on the bottom. It wasn't noticeable when the lid was on. Other than that, it was in good shape.

I talked to the women who owned it and told her that I thought the jar was priced too high with it being chipped. I asked her if she could do better on the price. She went and talked to her husband and she came back and said that they would knock off $50. So my wife and I talked it over and decided that with the chip, it was still too high. I went back again and said that I thought the jar was still a little too high and said I would buy it for $100. She went and talked to her husband and came back with the reply "He already dropped the price $50 and wouldn't go down any lower.

At this point, we had only been through about half of the booths. So, we decided to look around some more. At $125 and chipped, we thought we could find something at a better value for that price.

The morning rolled on and we came across a Metlox Koala Bear & a Brush Little Girl with patches on her dress. The person had the 2 jars for $125 each. At the time, we didn't know how much they were worth.

Later in the early afternoon, we went back to the car and looked through our cookie jar books (Important tip: Never leave your home without them) and noticed the price on the 2 jars. We went back to the dealer and asked again how much he wanted for the jars. The price on the Koala Bear went down to $65 and the price on the Girl went down to $40. We bought the girl in an instant. This person could not have known who made the jar or what it was.

We decided to wait on the Koala Bear. Instead, we decided to go back and offer $100 for the cow again. Even if we couldn't get the cow for $100, we were still going to buy it. We walked about a 1/4 of a mile and went to the booth where the cow was and not only was the cow gone the dealer was too. Robbed again. We were bummed. After getting over the disbelief that the dealer was gone, we decided to go back and get the Koala Bear. To our dismay, that dealer was gone too. "HOLY COW!" I said.

The moral of the story is "Just like cookies, don't wait too long to snatch the jar you want before they're gone!"

Mike Ellis
59 Call Road
Milford, Maine 04461
lymael@aol.com