{"product_id":"vintage-1940s-king-o-hearts-asparagus-crate-label-salinas-ca","title":"Vintage 1940s King o' Hearts California Asparagus Crate Label ♥️ — K. R. Nutting Co., Salinas CA","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWho Packed King o' Hearts Asparagus? ♥️ King o' Hearts California Asparagus, K. R. Nutting Co., Salinas\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9 1\/2\" x 9 1\/2\" ~ Little to no wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TNcsbLLusD4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis one's a real card. A King of Hearts playing card peeks up out of the top of a giant red heart, like it just got slipped into a shirt pocket, and King o' Hearts runs across the middle in big cream letters on a jet black ground. California is written underneath in a sky blue script, with ASPARAGUS beside it in bold lime green. It's simple, it's graphic, and from across a room it's one of the best-looking asparagus labels I've ever come across.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏷️ Every Word on the Label\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKing o' Hearts\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCalifornia ASPARAGUS\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eK. R. NUTTING CO., HEAD OFFICE, SALINAS, CALIFORNIA\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMIN. NET WEIGHT 30 LBS.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePRODUCE OF U. S. A.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back is blank, with the heart, the card and the lettering showing through faintly in reverse. There's no printer's credit anywhere on the sheet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📐 Why It's Shaped Like That\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook closely and you'll see the label is a little wider at the bottom than at the top. That's no accident. Asparagus was shipped standing up in a tapered wooden crate, wider at the base just like the spears themselves, and as Jeff Willett explains in his crate label history for the Ephemera Society of America, the box was built that way because of the vegetable's tapered stalks, so the labels were cut to a trapezoid to match. The shape let the label sit flat on the slanted end of the crate with no wrinkles or folds. New Jersey even wrote the \"pyramid asparagus crate\" into its official standards, 9 3\/4 inches wide at the top and 12 inches at the bottom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e👑 The Suicide King\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere's a fun one for the card players. The king on this label is drawn just like the King of Hearts in an ordinary deck, with his sword raised up behind his head, and that pose has earned him the nickname the \"Suicide King\", because it looks for all the world like he's stabbing himself. In an ordinary deck he's also the only king without a mustache, and the story goes that it was lost as the old wooden printing blocks wore down from copying the design over and over. Take a look at the label and there's that sword, raised right up behind his crown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🥬 Ken Nutting of Salinas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eK. R. Nutting Co. was founded in 1931 by Ken Nutting, Kenneth R. Nutting, one of the early grower-shippers of the Salinas Valley. He shows up in a group photograph of the California Inspection Service from about 1923 alongside T. Russ Merrill, the founder of Merrill Farms, so he was part of the Salinas produce world well before he put his own name on a crate. The company advertised as shippers and packers of Salinas in 1938, and as growers, packers and shippers in the early 1950s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe was packing BROKEN DRUM lettuce from the very start. Nutting filed for that trademark on February 1, 1932, claiming use since September 1, 1931, and it was registered on September 20, 1932 and renewed in 1952. The King o' Hearts mark, in its stylized lettering, was registered on January 22, 1957. In 1950 the National Canners Association's newsletter reported that Kenneth R. Nutting of the K. R. Nutting Company had been elected chairman, and in 1953 and 1954 he appears on the witness lists of Congressional hearings under the company's name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1963 the firm was succeeded by California Coastal Farms, founded that year by its new owners with the late E. J. Raffetto, and in 1968 they were still packing under BROKEN DRUM, KING O'HEARTS and GREEN CREST. So the brand outlived the Nutting name, which is why the K. R. NUTTING CO. line on this label puts it before 1963. Collectors date this design to the 1940s, and so do I.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🧊 The Salad Bowl and the Ice Plant\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1936 Nutting joined T. R. Merrill, Bruce Church and E. E. Harden in founding the Growers Ice Company, set up to serve the fresh produce industry of the Salinas Valley, and those men are credited with helping make Salinas the \"Salad Bowl\" of the United States. Local lore holds that the name \"iceberg lettuce\" was coined in the 1930s from exactly this business, as train cars heaped with lettuce and ice rolled out of Salinas bound for the rest of the country.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🖼️ Display\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrate 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImagine this amazing vintage advertising hanging as home decor in any room of your home instead of a museum!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1950s-green-guard-asparagus-crate-label-salinas-ca-striking\"\u003eVintage 1950s Green Guard Asparagus Crate Label 🌱 from California\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1940s-river-lad-asparagus-crate-label-los-angeles-ca-awesome\"\u003eVintage 1940s River Lad Brand California Fresh Asparagus Crate Label 🌱 — Blue Goose, American National Foods, Los Angeles\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1970s-progress-asparagus-crate-label-lodi-ca-stunning-memorabilia\"\u003eVintage 1970s Progress Brand California Asparagus Crate Label 🌿 Bilingual, R\u0026amp;J Packing Sales, Lodi CA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47047825162472,"sku":"VAG-9070734999784","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.6692079347_geat.jpg?v=1785442417","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1940s-king-o-hearts-asparagus-crate-label-salinas-ca","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}