The Great Cookie Conundrum

While perusing the CMD for other posts, I came across the page for Leeds.  

On that page (which was on the back side of an Alice page, when will I learn to TURN the page) was the listing for the Alice cookie jar by Leeds, which I originally posted last year.

In that post I discussed and pictured the two know Leeds variations on the Alice cookie jar. The blue

and the white

I also previously posted an image from the campaign book, but I now have a better scan of that page

Also in that post I mentioned that while I had never seen this particular style of cookie jar for Alice, I had seen a Donald Duck jar in that style (in a variety of colors), which is also pictured on the CMD page.

This style matches the blue Alice jar.

What I had never noticed before though was this price sheet on the CMD page

Notice how there are two sizes listed for the Alice jar, as well as the Donald and Mickey jars.  Could it be that these two variations are really the two different sizes listed here?

Regal Alice Cookie Jar

Considered the Holy Grail of Disney cookie jars is the Regal Alice cookie Jar. This jar is a monster. standing 13 inches tall, the centerpiece of the Regal Alice in Wonderland tea set!

Her torso comes off neatly to provide access to the cookies, much better than other figural jars where the head comes off, but I guess that would have been perfect if there had been a Queen of Hearts cookie jar (why didn't they think of that?).

Regal produced a lot of stuff in its day, most notably the Little Red Riding Hood series. But the Alice series is far from small as you shall see in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Leeds Alice Cookie Jar

Leeds made several cookie jars over the years, most famous were probably the turnaround jars from the 1940s. In the 1950s they simplified their jar design by using a standard jar with different embossed characters. This Alice jar is of that later design.

As with all (or most) Leeds cookie jars, the decoration is painted overglaze. And in this case, Alice had donned her fetching red dress which was so popular with RKO and the National Screen Services posters we saw a while back. The lid is cool, with the word Cookies embossed on it.

Now above I said that most Leeds jars were decorated overglaze. But there is a variant (I love it!) of the Alice jar that is underglaze. The white jar.

This cookie jar is so different from the much more common blue jar that it really can't be considered a true variant but a separate jar altogether, but I'm on a schedule so no separate post for you - so sue me.

The basic Alice figure embossed on the jar is the same, but the decoration is totally different (and correct), and of course underglaze. The jar itself is totally different in material composition, shape, and glaze, and the lid has some sort of candy or cake as its finial (looks more like a nipple to me, but I won't go there). And what is that mutant sombrero plant thing next to Alice supposed to be? My guess is that it is supposed to be a mushroom, perhaps upside down having been recently plucked for accelerated Alice growth, but it sure is weird looking.

The campaign book pictures yet another variation that appears to be a hybrid of the two above. I don't think it was ever produced in this style (at least I've never seen it), although I have seen that jar style on a Donald Duck cookie jar