Cutting Up for the Holidays: Collectible Antique Cookie Cutters

Pennsylvania heart-shaped wrought iron cookie cutter

Is there anything that gets the holidays started like making Christmas cookies (or eating them)?  Everybody has their favorites – molasses, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, but Christmas is the one time of year that most people take the trouble to roll out sugar cookie dough and cut it up into fancy shapes.  You can certainly have your choice of fancy shapes at any gourmet store, but many of us still have the cookie cutters that we used when we were little, ones that might have belonged to our grandmothers.  Take a look through the database, and you might think twice about tossing them out in favor of non-stick silicone 3-D shapes!

19th century Pennsylvania elephant form tin cookie cutter

Not many of us are fortunate enough to find a 19th-century wrought iron heart-shaped example like the one pictured here in our kitchen drawers, but for the most part, early cookie cutters are very collectible and affordable.  You have your choice of common Christmas shapes like Santas and reindeer or even an ingenious cookie cutter with a multitude of shapes in one cutter. As always, there are rare shapes that command top dollar, such as a chimney sweep, a woman’s leg or an elephant, but there are plenty of everyday shapes like horses and butterflies to go around.  Collectibles that you can use – what could be better?  The only caveat is that such objects, simple shapes made of common materials, are easily reproduced, so be sure to educate yourself before wading into the more expensive end of the market.

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com