Question:

I always enjoy reading all the question and answers, thanks for taking time to do this!  My question is about hand turned water coolers and the correct lid.  I know the earliest hand turned coolers would have had a button lid, but I wonder if they switched over to the bar style lid while still making hand turned coolers because they were less time consuming to make.  The reason I ask this is because I’ve seen several hand turned water coolers over the many  years of going to farm auctions that came right out of a cellar with a bar handle lid that matched perfectly with the cooler.  My thoughts are a button lid looks great on a cooler but if it came out of an old estate sale with a bar lid, that

was probably the correct lid it always had.  What do you think?   Am I

crazy?!

Answer:

You raise a good point.  I am not sure there is any way to prove it one way or another.  Most collectors and books on Red Wing say the button lids were made for the hand turned coolers.