Apple Crate Label Art
Back in the late 19th century, the citrus industry began to boom in California. Competition in this thriving industry was fierce, and each packing company did everything it could to get their product in front of hungry consumers. But how does a company differentiate its fruit from another company's? To solve this problem, these packing houses created a new art form, the crate label.
Crate labels were originally colorful round labels pasted onto barrels and later onto wooden crates. As more and more companies went to the rectangular crates to ship their goods, the rectangular label became the norm. Crate labels were produced for nearly every type of farm produce, by nearly every packing company both throughout the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world.
Originally, European immigrants combined their printing skills with local concepts to create art unsurpassed anywhere in the world. Bavarian limestones were imported to provide a surface upon which the original label art would be etched. Costly inks were used in a time consuming process done completely by hand. This "Stone Lithograph" process is seldom seen today in any art form. Over time more modern processes replaced this artistically demanding effort.
These crate labels depicted the area of production, symbols related to the company name, or were based on a theme or lifestyle of that era. It is rumored that some packing houses would produce labels with sad faced dogs on them if that year's crop was inferior! Regardless of the image portrayed on the label, it was produced with vivid colors -- all in an effort to catch the eye of the consumer.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s the use of wood crate labels was replaced with less costly pre-printed corrugated boxes. Many paper labels were destroyed, and thus the existing crate labels have taken on a new life as collectors items. Enjoy these colorful images of yesteryear by clicking on the next page link.
Next page: Apple crate labels picture gallery
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