Cookie cutter collection numbers more than 7000 years ago
Staff writer
Marilyn Ensz of rural Hillsboro has been collecting cookie cutters since 1990.
Why cookie cutters?
Simply put, Marilyn said, "I couldn't afford collecting cut glass anymore."
While attending a convention at the Kansas Coliseum in Wichita, Marilyn met an antique dealer from Oklahoma. The dealer told her about a cookie cutters collectors' convention in Denver, Colo.
"Out of the clear blue sky, I decided to go to Denver," Marilyn said. "And that's how I got started. And I've been doing it ever since."
There is "no deep underlining reason" why she collects cookie cutters.
"It's really fun to do," she said.
Her husband Willie found a tin lion cookie cutter in their attic, and Marilyn decided to become a collector of cookie cutters and to become a member of the Cookie Cutters Collection Club.
To build her collection, Marilyn attended garage sales and flea markets.
Her oldest cookie cutter is from 1882 with an Indian head penny on it.
Most of the cutters have come from companies issuing coupons or giving away cookie cutters with their products.
Some of the cutters come from companies which give away items, offer coupons, or sell things, such as flour, sugar, or baking products. She has cutters from Pillsbury, C&H Sugar, and Gold Medal to name a few.
But Marilyn has collected cutters from restaurants during special promotions at one time or another. Those restaurants include McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Subway, and Dairy Queen.
She also has a few cutters from organizations that were doing fund-raisers and offered cookie cutters. They include the Alzheimer's Association, Cincinnati Museum Center, and the Indian Foundation.
According to Marilyn, some book companies send cutters for promotions. She has a "Clifford the Dog" cookie cutter from Scholastic Books, and the Moody Institute gave out a cookie cutter for one of their Christmas books.
Some of the other unusual companies Marilyn has received cookie cutters from are Planter's Peanuts, Dial Soap, Avon, and Mary Kay Cosmetics.
"I have a Mary Kay cookie cutter in the shape of lips and a tube of lipstick," she said.
One of her rarest cutters comes from the Texas Cutters Roundup of 1984. According to Marilyn, only 13 were made, and the group thought all of them were accounted for, except for one belonging to a lady who died. At a November meeting of the CCCC, the group was surprised that Marilyn had the cutter. Evidently the cutter was sold, and Marilyn bought it.
She has two rare cutters that were from limited editions.
The most expensive cookie cutter she bought was for $87, and the least was for five cents.
"My husband Willie bid on that $87 one," Marilyn said. "We usually don't pay that much; I like the nickel ones," she said smiling.
Willie joins her in going to different conventions and area meetings of the Heart of America Cookie Cutters Club, which is a branch of the national association. The HOA Cookies Cutter Club includes Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska.
The group sends out a newsletter and has its own meetings apart from the national association meetings.
"Willie goes with me to the meetings," she said. "He enjoys it."
Both Marilyn and Willie grew up in the Hillsboro area but later moved to Wichita. The couple bought her grandfather's, J.B. Toews, original farm and moved back to the area.
They are now both retired. Attending the CCCC conventions, which are offered every two years, has taken them to places such as Denver, Colo.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Canton, Ohio; Bloomingdale, Minn.; New Philadelphia, Ohio; and Portland, Ore.
They are planning to attend a convention in June of this year in Pittsburgh, Pa.
"It's kind of silly stuff, but it's fun," she said
