Step into the butcher shops and general stores of 1920s Nebraska with this original antique K & R Countrymaid Food Products advertising sign from Hastings, Nebraska — a genuine NOS piece from one of the great plains' most celebrated food companies. 🏪 Printed in bold orange, cream, and black with a charming portrait of the iconic Countrymaid girl at center, this cardboard store display measures approximately 7¼" x 4¼" and has never been used.

Behind this label is a story as rich as the Nebraska plains themselves. Karl Kauf and George Rinderspacher — two German-born Hastings businessmen — built K & R Food Products, Inc. into a powerhouse of the regional food industry starting in the early 1920s. 🌾 In 1923 they purchased the old Hastings Brewery Building on West 2nd Street, converting a former lager brewery (shuttered by Prohibition) into a thriving meat processing and wholesale grocery operation — a fitting second life for a building that had already fed the city's appetite in a different way.

Under the "Countrymaid" brand, K & R became famous across Nebraska and the high plains for their sausage, lard, and cured meat products, always buying from local livestock farmers whenever possible — a commitment to the community that earned them enormous loyalty. 🐄 By 1929, K & R was one of the three largest businesses in Hastings, and through the 1930s they continued expanding their facilities to meet growing demand. The company also distributed a full line of grocery products — Kraft cheeses, canned fruits and vegetables, margarine — making the K & R name a trusted fixture in homes across the region.

These cardboard Countrymaid signs were distributed to butcher shops, general stores, and grocery counters throughout their trade area to catch a shopper's eye and build brand recognition for the Countrymaid line. 📜 They were functional advertising meant to be tacked up, handled, and eventually tossed — which is precisely why surviving NOS examples are so rare today. K & R occupied the Hastings Brewery Building for over fifty years before closing in 1979, and the building itself was later nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, recognizing the K & R era as a defining chapter in Hastings' industrial and commercial history.

This sign is in new old stock condition: never displayed, never hung, simply preserved in storage for nearly a century. ✅ The colors remain vivid, the portrait of the Countrymaid girl is crisp, and the orange and black graphic design feels as immediate and striking today as it did on a butcher shop counter in 1928. Whether you're a collector of Great Plains advertising ephemera, a Nebraska history enthusiast, or simply someone who appreciates bold early 20th-century graphic design, this piece is a rare and displayable survivor. 🖼️

Details 📝

• Original antique K & R Countrymaid Food Products advertising sign

• Produced in Hastings, Nebraska by Kauf & Rinderspacher (K & R) Food Products, Inc.

• Era: 1920s–1930s (K & R's peak expansion period; one of Hastings' three largest businesses by 1929)

• Approx. size: 7¼" x 4¼"

• Condition: NOS (new old stock), unused and unframed

• Bold orange, cream, and black lithographed cardboard design

• K & R Brewery Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

A beautiful piece of Hastings, Nebraska history — and one of the increasingly rare survivors of a brand that once fed the high plains. 🌾🧺