{"product_id":"vintage-1940s-levon-crate-label-los-banos-blythe-ca-beautiful","title":"Vintage 1940s Levon Brand California Melons Crate Label 🦁 — L. M. Azhderian, Los Banos-Blythe California","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWho Packed Levon Brand Melons? 🦁 Levon Brand California Melons, L. M. Azhderian\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 11 1\/2\" x 9\" ~ 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\/ejLKkz9w66o\" 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\u003eA big tawny lion, crouched and snarling, stalking right off the label at you. This is a vintage 1940s Levon Brand California Melons crate label, packed and shipped by L. M. Azhderian of Los Banos-Blythe, California, and never used. And there's a reason it's a lion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🔍 What's on it\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLEVON\u003c\/strong\u003e in big cream slab letters with a red-and-black 3-D shadow, arched across the top, with a small \u003cstrong\u003eBRAND\u003c\/strong\u003e under the last N and \u003cstrong\u003eSELECTED QUALITY\u003c\/strong\u003e at the upper left. The lion is crouched low, mouth open, green-eyed, its front paws breaking across the line between a bright lime-green upper field and a dark lower band, its tail curling up into the green. Lower left, \u003cstrong\u003eCalifornia\u003c\/strong\u003e in orange script over \u003cstrong\u003eMELONS\u003c\/strong\u003e in heavy orange-red letters, then \u003cstrong\u003ePRODUCE OF U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e in light blue and \u003cstrong\u003ePACKED \u0026amp; SHIPPED BY L. M. AZHDERIAN, LOS BANOS-BLYTHE, CALIFORNIA\u003c\/strong\u003e. There's a tiny printer's line in red down in the bottom right corner, and small as it is, it reads \u003cstrong\u003eSCHMIDT L. CO. FRESNO\u003c\/strong\u003e. That's the Schmidt Lithograph Company, the big San Francisco label house that German-born printer Max Schmidt got going in the 1870s, and it printed labels for fruit crates, canned goods and Pacific Northwest salmon all over the West. The FRESNO on the end is their Fresno imprint, right in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. Stecher-Traung bought Schmidt in 1966 and the firm became Stecher-Traung-Schmidt, so a label still carrying the plain Schmidt name was printed before that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🇦🇲 Why a lion?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLevon is an Armenian name, the Armenian form of Leon, and Leon means lion. So Levon Brand is a lion brand, and the name tells you who was behind it. Azhderian is an Armenian family name too, and it runs deep in California melons: V.H. Azhderian started growing and shipping melons in the Imperial Valley in 1915, and V.H. Azhderian \u0026amp; Co. grew melons for more than a hundred years, in Holtville, Turlock, Dos Palos and at its old downtown packing house in Los Banos, under its Three Star label, until it left the melon business and its assets went to Martori Farms in 2025. L. M. Azhderian's Levon label comes out of that same melon country.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🌵 Los Banos and Blythe\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label pairs two melon towns that are a long way apart. \u003cstrong\u003eLos Banos\u003c\/strong\u003e, in the western San Joaquin Valley, takes its name from the Spanish \u003cem\u003elos baños\u003c\/em\u003e, \"the baths,\" after a spring that fed the natural wetlands there. Rancher Henry Miller built a vast gravity irrigation system in the 1870s that made the area rich, and the town was incorporated in 1907. \u003cstrong\u003eBlythe\u003c\/strong\u003e is way down in the desert on the Colorado River, in the Palo Verde Valley. San Francisco financier Thomas Blythe filed on the river's water rights there in 1877, the town was named for him, and it was incorporated in 1916, the year the railroad came.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏡 Display\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! That lion and lime green really jump off a kitchen wall, and it's a great gift for a Leo, a Levon, anybody with Armenian roots, or anybody from Los Banos or Blythe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrate 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.\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-1940s-pilgrim-crate-label-exeter-ca-americana-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1940s Pilgrim Brand Crate Label 🦃 — California Fruits, Mayflower Fruit Ass'n, Exeter CA, Blue Anchor\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1940s-foot-high-crate-label-fl-risque-provocative-pinup\"\u003eVintage 1940s Foot High Melons Crate Label 🍈 — F. H. 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