She Thought Her Old Crock Was Worth $20—Then It Sold for $32,000 at Auction

Treasure is sometimes hidden in plain sight. That was the case at a home in Nebraska.

A 30-gallon stoneware crock had been sitting for decades on the back porch of a Midwestern home, serving as a makeshift table. It was something the owner, Lois Jurgens, planned to sell at a garage sale for $20. It sold for $32,000 at a recent auction.

"I just couldn’t believe it," Jurgens, who turned 91 on the day the crock was sold, told The Washington Post. "It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever gotten on my birthday."

Manufactured by Red Wing Stoneware, the giant crock features molded side handles and a blue butterfly illustration, and is stamped twice with the company name, a rarity. The crock is salt-glazed, giving it a coarser texture than a smoother zinc glaze. It's estimated to have been made between 1877 and 1900.

"It’s very unusual," said Ken Bramer, the owner of Bramer Auction & Realty in Amherst, Nebraska, which sold the piece. "That’s the first one of those I’ve seen in 40 years of auctioneering."

Jurgens told the Post that she couldn't recall how or when she and her husband (who passed away in 2022) acquired the crock.

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Because the piece was too heavy to move, it never did make it into the garage sale. Then, Jurgens saw a notice in the local newspaper about an upcoming auction for antiques and collectibles, including Redwing crocks. The Jurgens family was prepared to sell the crock for $20, and they’d be glad if it fetched more than that.

Stoneware crocks were common household items historically used for food preservation before modern refrigeration. Today, some are still used for fermenting or as decorative objects. Red Wing, Minnesota, was home to the manufacture of utilitarian stoneware, art pottery, and dinnerware from 1861 until 1967. The pottery is still being produced today under various names.

After Bramer posted photos of the piece on his website and Facebook page, calls from collectors across the U.S. started coming in. At the auction, held on January 10, bids started at $1,000 and quickly escalated. A crock collector in Kansas snagged the piece for $32,000.

"The whole situation kind of left me in shock. Thankful, but in shock,” Jurgens told the Post. "I just couldn’t believe it."