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Size: 13" x 4"
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Size: 13" x 4" ~ Unused as printed.
A crowned queen for a grape lug from Exeter. This is an antique 1930s Valley Queen Brand grape label, grown and packed by C. D. Pruner & Son of Exeter, California, and it's absolutely stunning, like the day it was made. A striking piece of Tulare County grape history.
My pictures seriously don't do it justice.
The long 13-inch shape is the end of a grape lug, the shallow box table grapes went east in, and 28 pounds was the standard Emperor lug. The Emperor is a late-season red table grape. Stecher-Traung of San Francisco printed it; that firm carried the Stecher-Traung name from 1936 to 1966.
The Pruners were an Exeter family. The Exeter cemetery lists a whole row of them born in Lodi, Virginia, among them Charles Dunn Pruner, born July 29, 1883 and died in 1970, whose initials match the C. D. on this label, and the family packed grapes under more than one brand, C. D. Pruner and Pruner's Select among them, with an A. E. Pruner packing the Exeter Lily brand too. The University of California, Davis keeps a Pruner "California Emperor Grapes" label in its lug and can label collection.
By 1888 the Southern Pacific ran through the area, and a railroad man named D. W. Parkhurst bought land and laid out a town, naming it for his own hometown of Exeter, England. Exeter incorporated on March 2, 1911. In the 1930s the damming of the Kaweah River gave the farms reliable water, and the town calls itself the "Citrus Capital of the World." Today downtown Exeter is famous for its murals, 31 of them painted on the walls of the old buildings, telling the story of the area.
Crate Labels are a reminder of a bygone era but the amazing lithography process 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 these out to preserve their history. Once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries then they will be very difficult to acquire.
Imagine this amazing vintage advertising hanging as home decor in any room of your home instead of a museum! At this price for an almost 100-year-old piece of art and history, how can you not? It's a perfect gift for anybody from Exeter, Visalia or Tulare County.
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The only things I can't take back are custom or special-order pieces and gift cards.
Preserving History: Authentic Objects Across Eras
