A Nebraska grandmother pocketed a staggering $32,000 for a rare crock that sat on her front porch for four decades — just in time for her 91st birthday.
Lois Jurgens, 91, almost considered selling her weathered crock at a garage sale, where it likely wouldn’t have been worth more than $50.
But around the same time she began considering parting with the 30-gallon Red Wing Stoneware crock, the Bramer Auction and Realty announced it was holding a sale exclusively comprised of antique crocks, news personality Colleen William reported.
The auction house’s owner, Ken Bramer, was at first dubious about squeezing Jurgens’ hulking crock in. By the time she approached him, ads had already been placed, and the auction was just a few days out.
Bramer dropped by Jurgens’ home, where the crock sat where it always had on her porch. Snow and leaves had piled up around it, but a home-made lid kept the foliage from slipping inside. Bramer instantly knew he found a winner when he turned the crock around and spotted a set of blue butterfly markings on the back, Williams reported.
The crock bore two distinct stamps, which were rarely featured on Red Wing crocks, and automatically elevated its worth in the eyes of a die-hard collector.
Jurgens humbly estimated that Bramer could sell it for around $100. Bramer nearly laughed and assured her that she was “going to be surprised.”
When auction day rolled around on Saturday, Jurgens couldn’t be there — it was her 91st birthday, and she was volunteering at her local church. By the time she arrived at the fairgrounds, the bitter three-way fight between eager bidders from Texas, Kansas, and Iowa had concluded.
“We did a little better than $100,” Bramer teased.
Bramer told Williams that Jurgens became weak in the knees and needed to be helped onto the stage after he told her they secured $32,000 for her crock.
Jurgens told Williams that, in all her 91 years of life, the sale of her beloved crock was about the most exciting thing that had happened to her.
