Vintage 1970s Firewood Family Crate Label Santa Clara 🍎 CA Rustic Americana Decor

Who Sold Bloomfield Farms Firewood? 🔥 GENUINE FIREWOOD, Bloomfield Farms, Santa Clara Valley, 1977

Size: 11 3/4" x 7" ~ Little to no wear.

Vintage 1970s Firewood Family Crate Label made by Bloomfield Farms out of Santa Clara, California by the famous James Dowlen. One of the most stunning and late examples of a crate label I have seen. It is an absolutely amazing Americana that is guaranteed to attract attention.

It's a whole evening by the fire in one picture. Dad sits back in his rocker reading a big storybook to a little girl with a bow in her hair, a boy sits by the hearth poking at the logs, and Mom sews quietly on the right beside a tall grandfather clock. The fire roars in a round stone hearth under a heavy wooden mantel with a carved eagle, a copper kettle, pewter mugs and a lantern, and a skillet and ladles hang by the fire. GENUINE FIREWOOD arches across the top in big red and gold letters, with a little "Kindling Included" badge tucked in the corner.

🏷️ Every Word on the Label

• GENUINE FIREWOOD
• SPLIT OAK AND MADRONE LOGS
• Kindling Included
• BLOOMFIELD FARMS, SANTA CLARA VALLEY SINCE 1853, with a TM mark beside the oval
• BLOOMFIELD FARMS, CALIFORNIA 95020
• 1.15 CUBIC FEET
• James Dowlen, Story Time, the artist's signature and the painting's title, lower right
• © 1977 Bloomfield Farms

The back is blank cream paper. The little oval shows a farmhouse among tall trees with orchard rows running out in front of it, and 95020 is the ZIP code for Gilroy, down at the south end of the Santa Clara Valley.

🎨 James Dowlen and "Story Time"

The painting on this label is called Story Time, and James Dowlen signed it right there in the corner. Operating his art studio for 50 years without interruption, James Dowlen has kept it going since its start in 1972. His early pen and ink illustrations and fantasy paintings of the 1970s gave James a reputable name in the San Francisco Bay Area art world.

And here's the part I think is really neat. A few years after he painted this cozy fireside scene, Dowlen became one of the early computer artists. Working out of Santa Rosa, California, he made illustrations for the Whole Earth Software Review in 1984 with Lumena, a PC paint program from his own company, and he demonstrated Lumena on the TV show Computer Chronicles, showing off a palette of 256 colors picked from about 16 million. He created covers for AV Video magazine in 1988 and 1990 and did the package illustration for Maxis's Robosport in 1991, and he's still at it today, living and working in Oregon. So this is the same hand that went from painted firelight to the first days of digital art.

🐄 The Bloomfield Name in Gilroy

Down in Gilroy the name Bloomfield goes way back. Henry Miller, born in Brackenheim, Germany in 1828, landed in San Francisco in 1850 with only $6 to his name, and in 1853 he bought and delivered in San Francisco the first herd of cattle ever driven into a San Francisco market. The start of his huge land holdings was the Bloomfield ranch near Gilroy, which began at 1,700 acres and grew to 30,000. He built Bloomfield Ranch just south of town as his business headquarters, went into partnership with Charles Lux in 1858, and became known as California's Cattle King. His red barn, built in 1891, still stands on the ranch side of Christmas Hill Park.

The label's own oval says Santa Clara Valley since 1853, the same year Miller drove that first herd to San Francisco. By the late 1970s Bloomfield Farms was selling split oak and madrone firewood like this, and a 1982 Bay Area food guide lists Bloomfield Farms as an independent garlic grower selling traditional garlic braids. And when Gilroy threw its very first Garlic Festival in 1979, it was held on the grounds of the Bloomfield Ranch.

🪵 Oak and Madrone

Oak and madrone are both California hardwoods, and this label went on a bundle of 1.15 cubic feet of it, kindling included, ready to carry into the house and light.

🖼️ Display

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!