Antique 1930s Altissimo Brand Sunkist Valencias Crate Label 🍊 Placentia Mutual Orange Association, Orange County California

Who Packed Altissimo Valencias? 🍊 Altissimo Brand Sunkist Valencias, Placentia Mutual Orange Ass'n., Placentia, California

Size: 11" x 10" ~ Little to no wear.

Snowy peaks glowing pink in the last of the sun, over a deep navy night. This is an antique 1930s Altissimo crate label for Sunkist Valencia oranges from the Placentia Mutual Orange Association of Placentia, Orange County, California, and it was never pasted on a box. Altissimo is Italian for "highest," and they meant it: the mountains, the name and the grade all say the same thing. This one is one of my favorite citrus labels, the colors are just stunning!

🔍 What's on it

VALENCIAS across the top of a pale green sky, over a range of snow-capped peaks lit peach and pink, with dark blue ridges below. Then a big ALTISSIMO in cream letters outlined in yellow. In the lower left, an orange wrapped in white tissue, twisted at the end, with Sunkist printed right on the wrapper, and in tiny type beneath it, REGISTERED 1918. On the right, HIGHEST QUALITY, PLACENTIA MUTUAL ORANGE ASS'N. and PLACENTIA, ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. There is a line of microtype at the very bottom edge that is too small to read. The back is plain, with ALTISSIMO showing faintly through in reverse.

⭐ Sunkist and the "highest quality"

That wrapped orange is the important part. The California Fruit Growers Exchange adopted Sunkist as its trademark at its April 1908 meeting, and only the highest grade of fruit went out in wrappers printed with the name. So a Sunkist orange on the label, with HIGHEST QUALITY right beside it, was telling the buyer back East this was the top of the pack. And that little REGISTERED 1918 line means this sheet was printed in 1918 or later.

And the fruit really did travel. The Santa Ana papers used to print the citrus auction reports from the eastern markets, and Altissimo Valencias from Placentia show up in them again and again from 1927 into the late 1930s. In the summer of 1936 the Santa Ana Journal listed "Altissimo, PO, Skt., Placentia" at $5.30, and that Skt. sure looks like Sunkist, just like the wrapper on this label.

🌳 Placentia, the "pleasant place"

Placentia got its name back in 1878, when Sarah Jane McFadden renamed the local school district with a Latin word she took to mean "a pleasant place to live." It's orange country from the roots up: a marker put up in 1934 by the Native Daughters of the Golden West, now on the Cal State Fullerton campus, says the first Valencia orchard in California was planted there in 1880 by R.H. Gilman, on the property of the Placentia Fruit Co. So an Altissimo box of Placentia Valencias was about as close to the source as you can get.

The Placentia Mutual Orange Association packed under several brands, Caledonia and Shamrock among them, and it was still going in 1963, when the Placentia Orange Growers Association merged into it and handed over all its business. The Placentia Mutual packing house was listed as a California historic resource in 1984.

The name had a second life, too. In 1995 the Paloma Citrus Association of Visalia registered ALTISSIMO as a trademark for fresh citrus, with eagles, flowers and mountain scenery in the design, and it ran until 2005.

🏡 Display

Imagine hanging this antique advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! Those glowing mountains look great framed in a kitchen, a den or a cabin, and it's a perfect gift for a skier, a hiker, a musician who knows what altissimo means on a saxophone, or anybody from Placentia or Orange County.

Crate labels are a reminder of a bygone era, and the lithography on them is unparalleled even to this day, in my opinion. Museums and art institutes have galleries dedicated to them, and more and more collectors are seeking them out to preserve their history. Once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries, they will be very difficult to acquire.