This is a new site launched by David Hall, the owner of the FABULOUS
www.Plan59.com website (formerly known as www.ephemeranow.com ; I have
mentioned this site here before) which features scores of splendidly -
reproduced automotive, food, decorating, and other ads from roughly the
1935 - 1962 period. You can spend happy hours browsing these high -
defintion ads...

Like the Plan59 website, this crate label site is eye - poppingly and
meticulously done, featuring scores of juicy and luscious high - def scans
of old fruit and vegetable labels (and you can also buy some as prints.
NOTE: I am in NO WAY affiliated with the site or it's owner, I have
absolutely NO commercial connection in any way with this site. It's just a
DARNED fine site...perusing it you think, "Wow, this is what the web was
designed for...". You also think, "Why are modern labels so DRAB?".). Mr.
Hall also writes an informative and witty blog (
http://www.boxofapples.com/blog.htm ) with his newest label scans and
information about them, e.g. :

"SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2006

Sunny Heights Oranges

A friend from Redlands says the orange groves are all condos now".


Anyways, here is the site and it's intro. Following is a short history of
crate labels taken from the site. Go ahead, take a bite! :

http://www.boxofapples.com/about.htm

"BoxOfApples.com is the online museum (and gift shop) of fruit crate labels
from the early 1900s to 1950s. Back in the days of our grandparents and
their parents, people did their produce-shopping at markets that were more
like a farmer's market than today's grocery stores. The fruit and vegetables
would be displayed in their shipping crates somewhere near the railroad
tracks, probably under a big shed. Each crate would have a label (up to a
foot square) showing the name of the packer, and a colorful design to
differentiate the brand. Fruit crates disappeared with the advent of
self-service supermarkets and cardboard boxes, but thousands of vintage
labels have survived in mint condition, rescued from warehouses and print
shops, mostly on the West Coast. Beautifully printed by stone lithography
with eight- or twelve-color inks, they are now collectors' items with a big
following on eBay. On this site you can see dozens of different designs, and
buy large-format, high-quality reproductions for home or office. Below, from
1988, is a history of crate labels by Thomas Jacobsen...:


A History of Crate Labels

Since Western settlers discovered there was more wealth in oranges than in
gold, the fruit-crate label has more truly represented the California dream
of striking it rich than the early cries of "Eureka!"

Although the California soil may have been as rich as gold, fruit farmers
needed a way to market their golden globes to East Coast buyers. To attract
the eye of buyers, the fruit-crate label business was born.

In the 70 years between the 1880s and the 1950s, millions of colorful paper
labels were used by America's fruit and vegetable growers to advertise their
wooden boxes of fresh produce that was shipped throughout the nation and the
world.

Collectors value crate art for its colorful design and its ability to trace
the social and political history of American agriculture.

Beginning primarily in the southern regions of California, labels became an
industrywide necessity to communicate the appeal of fresh produce to Eastern
buyers. In the fast-paced setting of Eastern auction halls and commission
markets, buyers could not see the fruit, which was individually packed in
tissue paper and sealed in a wooden box. The brightly colored, attractively
designed label soon became the growers' chief advertising device, the
symbolic window from which the fruit could be judged.

In wholesale auction yards, the more vivid, powerful and attractive the
illustration, the better the produce would sell. The labels included nearly
every theme, especially regional and national history and scenery. Crate art
included Indians, children, the Gold Rush, the old West, politics, the
romantic era, war, fierce animals, beautiful women and luscious vignettes of
fruits and vegetables.

The first products shipped in this way were oranges and lemons from Southern
California, grapes and raisins from the Central Valley, and apples, pears,
and other tree fruits from Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
and British Columbia. When ships and railroads installed refrigeration, and
packing techniques improved, farmers began to ship such perishable produce
as melons, tomatoes, lettuce and asparagus.

After California growers began using crate labels in the 1880s, the idea
caught on. Labels were used in 43 states and in such countries as New
Zealand, Japan, Chile, France and Tasmania.

A good label, said a 1924 edition of Blue Anchor Magazine of the California
Fruit Exchange, was one that would "dignify the pack" - it must catch the
buyer's attention, bringing the product to mind.

In creating brands for fresh and canned goods, lithograph houses used
unusual color schemes and art styles, catchy slogans and lively designs with
instinctive lettering to make each brand stand out. For example, Duckwall
Brothers Inc. of Hood River featured a label with a duck standing in front
of a rock wall. The idea of the image brought the brand name to mind.

Nearly all paper labels were produced by San Francisco's tremendous
lithographic industry, the first labels being created by superimposing up to
six, even 12, separate colors, one after the other, to form a single image.

Label design concepts can be divided into three groups. From the 1880s to
the 1920s, "naturalistic" themes predominated. Labels included pictures of
flowers, children, landscapes, famous landmarks and trains. A 1905 label
from the Occidental Fruit Co. of Hood River/Yakima featured a nine-color
stone lithograph of Mount Adams in the distance, with an articulate farm
scene and acres of manicured orchards at the foot of the mountain.

From the 1920s to the 1930s, the emphasis drifted toward the benefits of
health obtained by eating fresh produce. A 1910 label from Jucy Bite of
Yakima featured a tubercular-looking child in ragged clothing ravishing an
apple.

Finally, from the 1930s to the late 1950s, design took on the commercial art
concepts of the day: bold lettering and geometric patterns were directed
solely toward product recognition. For example, Magnetic of Whittier,
Calif., featured a magnet that disrupts the lettering of the title
"Magnetic."

In the mid 1950s, paper labeling of wooden crates ended abruptly with the
introduction of the more economical preprinted cardboard box. Large
quantities of labels were discarded, but many remained unused in the
basements of packing sheds and in litho house files. Collectors prefer these
mint-fresh labels, without glue, tape or lacquer, but they also collect
labels on wood.

Today, with the produce industry a multinational agribusiness, label art is
all but extinct. This is also true of the lithographic industry that created
label art. Ninety percent of these printers have closed their doors, and
only one of San Francisco's original litho houses is in business today."

</>

One time on Usenet, "Gregory Morrow" <gregorymorrowONACLEARDAYYOUCANSEEALOAFHEAD@earthl ink.net> said:

> This is a new site launched by David Hall, the owner of the FABULOUS
> www.Plan59.com website (formerly known as www.ephemeranow.com ; I have
> mentioned this site here before) which features scores of splendidly -
> reproduced automotive, food, decorating, and other ads from roughly the
> 1935 - 1962 period. You can spend happy hours browsing these high -
> defintion ads...

<snip>

> Anyways, here is the site and it's intro. Following is a short history of
> crate labels taken from the site. Go ahead, take a bite! :
>
> http://www.boxofapples.com/about.htm

Love these sites, thanks, Greg... :-)

--
"Little Malice" is Jani in WA
~ mom, Trollop, novice cook ~