It’s What’s on Outside That Counts

Labels just aren’t what they used to be.

Sure, you may see an intriguing one every now and then, but when an athlete grinning on a Wheaties box is state of the art, it’s clear that times have changed.

Decades ago, a label was a company’s main calling card, something to wow the eye. F.H. Hogue, a cannery out of California and Arizona, used a sultry, near-nude pinup to sell its Blushing brand vegetables in 1943. Now that was a label.

These colorful remnants have become prime collectibles, as Ralph and Terry Kovel point out in their just-released “The Label Made Me Buy It” ($40, Crown Publishing, 1998). The Kovels, who write a syndicated column on collecting that appears on N4. in this section, say old labels from canned vegetables to crated fruits are prized for their history, kitsch and aesthetic value. They can sell from as little as $3 for a can label to as much as $500 or more for an orange crate one.

“I think the reason labels are so appealing to people is they link beautifully done art that’s very colorful with the heartstrings of history,” says Judy Schroeder, an artist and member of the Orange Historical Society. “The people I know who have a collection started with their families’ labels that were used on their products. We have some labels that are regional and from a friend of my dad’s who had an apple orchard in Julian.

“I’m also seeing lots of designs that artists are using that are reminiscent of crate labels. It’s very definitely a nod to the past.”

The Kovels agree: “Many who want fruit crate labels, cigar box labels or produce seals. . . enjoy the history and graphics of these miniature works of art.”

The Kovels’ collection started in the 1950s, when they picked up a scrapbook of labels at a Boston bookstore. Their passion snowballed as the Kovels found that each label had a story.

“The labels often speak for themselves,” says Terry Kovel. “They are small ads promoting the product to either wholesalers or housewives. They picture the hairstyles, fashions, architecture and transportation of the day.

“Familiar trademarks, printing styles, colors, even the wording contain clues to the age of the label.”

The Exchange Gallery in Orange is housed in the former Sunkist building, where the Orange County Fruit Exchange had its offices. Owner Tom Porter says they don’t sell labels, but he collects them himself, mostly from Orange and the surrounding areas.

“They’re great for framing or preserved in acrylic,” Porter says.

The Kovels’ book can be appreciated as either a guide for dedicated collectors or as an addition to an art or design library.

“The Label Made Me Buy It” appealed to Deborah Samuels, who fills her Fountain Valley home with all sorts of antiques, because of the variety and cleverness of the hundreds of labels featured.

“They [label artists] showed such care in making them,” Samuels, 52, says. “Some of them are just fascinating.”

Samuels has considered collecting labels but says their scarcity makes it difficult. Besides, she says, she didn’t know enough about them to make it a serious hobby.

“You may see one every now and then [in an antique shop or garage sale], but you don’t know what to look for.” “I guess if it looks good and you like it [that] should be enough.”

The Kovels agree with that but offer detailed information for the more discerning collector who wants to know the origins of any label. One of the ways a label can be dated is to study its subject.

Is an attractive woman featured, such as the “Diving Girl” plunging into a lake on the crate label telling customers they were getting apples from M.N. Lettunich in Watsonville, Calif.? If so, it was probably used in the early 1900s when pretty girls were a popular motif.

“Cars, trains, balloons and sports, especially golf and baseball, were [also] early 20th century favorites,” Ralph Kovel says.

Another way to date labels is to examine the printing. If the ingredients are listed, it came out in 1938 or after, because that was the year the Food and Drug Administration required such information.

The first labels date back to 3000 BC, when Egyptian wine merchants and Chinese potters attached clay seals to their wares. Printed labels showed up in Europe in the early 1700s, and the earliest American labels came out just before the turn of the century.

The golden age, though, had to be from the early 1900s through the 1930s, when labels flourished in creativity, style and, sometimes, bad taste. A couple of the more memorable examples were for Fat Pak grapes and Kaweah Maid lemons, both from California.

In Fat Pak, circulated during the ‘30s, a very chubby boy (looking remarkably like Spanky from “Our Gang”) stares hungrily, almost desperately, at a crate of grapes just out of reach. There was more dignity in the Kaweah Maid from the ‘20s. A girl from the Yokuts tribe, dressed in delicately painted traditional garb, gazes proudly at the buyer.

Many labels portrayed black people in racist or stereotypical ways. It’s hard not to cringe at the Dixie Boy crackers with their label of a boy devouring watermelon or the Fun to Wash detergent package featuring a gross caricature of a black woman.

“It showed bias or bigotry,” the Kovels write about the imagery.

Offensive labels “don’t tell you much about the people they depict,” says a spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History, which displays some such images from the past. “They tell you more about attitudes [of the creators] toward people they depicted.”

Jeannette Carson of Hyattsville, Md., began collecting black artifacts about two decades ago. She published Black Ethnic Collectibles magazine from 1984-93 (back issues are available by calling [301] 559-6363 or visiting the Web site at https://afamerica.com/blackcollectibles).

Carson, who promoted black memorabilia shows for 11 years and formed the National Assn. of Black Memorabilia Collectors and the Black Collectors Hall of Fame (neither organization is still active), says there was a time when African Americans, including her parents, would destroy Aunt Jemima labels and other racial stereotypes. But she has seen a growing interest in preserving and displaying the memorabilia among such prominent African Americans as Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Though some people consider the artifacts controversial, the Kovels say many people are not offended if they seem them in a historical context.