More than 30 years ago, a South Dakota collector who goes only by Rick paid $750 for a 30-gallon Red Wing stoneware crock at an auction, storing it in an old granary on his farm, where it sat largely forgotten for decades. It wasn’t until he saw photos of a nearly identical crock selling for $32,000 in January that he realised what he had. Here’s how a routine farm auction find turned into a rare twin to one of the most talked-about crocks in the antiques world.
The South Dakota collector’s $750 crock discovery
Rick’s crock, double-stamped, salt-glazed, and decorated with the same hand-painted cobalt butterfly pattern found on the famous $32,000 piece, had spent decades in storage on his farm after his original $750 purchase. When he recognised the resemblance from news photos, he called Nebraska auctioneer Ken Bramer directly. “A guy from up by Watertown, South Dakota, called me and said, ‘I got the fourth crock,'” Bramer told Cowboy State Daily. “He said, ‘That one you sold down there for such big money? I got the twin sister to it.'” By the next morning, Rick had driven 400 miles overnight to reach Bramer’s driveway by 8am.
How the $32,000 sale to Lois Jurgens set off “crock mania”
The story traces back to a small-town auction in Holdrege, Nebraska, in January, where a crock that had sat on 91-year-old Lois Jurgens’ porch for four decades, one she’d considered selling at a garage sale for as little as $50, instead became the centre of a bidding war. According to the New York Post, Jurgens couldn’t even attend the auction herself, since it fell on her 91st birthday and she was volunteering at her local church; by the time she arrived at the fairgrounds, a fierce three-way fight between bidders from Texas, Kansas and Iowa had already pushed the price to $32,000. Auctioneer Ken Bramer, who had only jokingly told her beforehand they’d “done a little better than $100,” said Jurgens went weak in the knees and had to be helped onto the stage when she learned the final figure. Jurgens told journalist Colleen Williams it was, in all her 91 years, about the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.
Lois Jurgens, 91, sold her vintage crock for $32,000 on her birthday.(Image: Colleen Williams /Facebook)
Meeting Rick: The twin crock’s journey to auction
Rick’s crock does carry one flaw the original doesn’t, a crack down the back, which he said he bought that way. Alongside it, he also brought an 18-inch Red Wing bowl so rare it doesn’t appear in standard collector guides. Both pieces are headed to auction on 18 April at the Phelps County fairgrounds in Holdrege, the same venue where Jurgens’ crock sold. Like the Kansas collector who placed the winning $32,000 bid while out pheasant hunting, Rick has chosen to stay anonymous, telling Bramer he doesn’t want people knowing what he has or where to find him.
What experts say drives the growing interest in Red Wing pottery
Collectors believe as many as six of these specific decorated crocks exist, with three previously well known among insiders before Rick’s emerged as a fourth. Red Wing expert Larry Peterson, who has collected the pottery for 55 years and co-authored three books on the subject, said interest has spread to related pieces like decorated beehive jugs. Peterson doubts Rick’s cracked crock will match $32,000 given its condition, but expects strong interest regardless. Since the Jurgens sale, Bramer said he has fielded thousands of calls, texts and emails from people asking whether their own crocks might be valuable, managing to respond to around 250 so far.
