{"product_id":"vintage-1950s-royal-blush-flush-crate-label-fresno-ca-poker-treasures","title":"Vintage 1950s Royal Blush Brand Crate Label 🂡 — Anthony Abbate Fruit Distributors, Fresno CA — Schmidt Litho, Poker Art","description":"\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\/lR7-J7v5pnw\" 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\u003ch2\u003eRoyal Blush or Royal Flush? 🂡 Vintage 1950s Crate Label, Anthony Abbate Fruit Distributors, Fresno CA\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e11\" x 4 1\/2\" ~ little to no wear.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🂡 A Royal Flush, Dealt in Fruit\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe whole brand is one joke, and it is a good one. \u003cstrong\u003eROYAL BLUSH\u003c\/strong\u003e stands in three-dimensional gold letters across a deep magenta ground, and fanned out below it is a poker hand: \u003cstrong\u003eA · K · Q · J · 10\u003c\/strong\u003e. Five cards in sequence to the ace — a royal flush, the best hand there is, the one nothing beats. And printed across the middle card in navy: \u003cstrong\u003e\"CAN'T BE BEAT.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThen look at the pips. Every one of them has been replaced with painted fruit. The ace carries a pair of red-brown plums on a leafy stem. The king has an orange peach with a green leaf. The queen has a single dark purple plum. The jack has a smaller round apricot. The ten carries two bunches of red grapes. So the hand is not just a royal flush — it is a royal flush made of the packer's own produce, and \"Royal Blush\" is a pun on both the hand and the blush on a ripe peach.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no joker in it, and there should not be. A joker would make it a wild-card hand, and a natural royal flush needs no help.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📜 Everything Printed on the Sheet\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eROYAL BLUSH\u003c\/strong\u003e · \u003cstrong\u003eBRAND\u003c\/strong\u003e · the five cards \u003cstrong\u003eA K Q J 10\u003c\/strong\u003e · \u003cstrong\u003e\"CAN'T BE BEAT\"\u003c\/strong\u003e · \u003cstrong\u003eDISTRIBUTED BY ANTHONY ABBATE FRUIT DISTRIBUTORS, INC. — MAIN OFFICE, FRESNO, CALIFORNIA\u003c\/strong\u003e · \u003cstrong\u003ePRODUCE OF U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e · and, in microtype along the bottom edge, the printer: \u003cstrong\u003eSCHMIDT L. CO. FRESNO\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNo year. No packing house. No grade, no net weight, no variety named. Fresno is given as the distributor's \u003cem\u003emain office\u003c\/em\u003e, which is where the fruit was sold from rather than grown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖨️ Max Schmidt, Who Printed It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat microtype at the foot is worth more than it looks. \u003cstrong\u003eMax Schmidt\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Germany in \u003cstrong\u003e1850\u003c\/strong\u003e, and at fourteen — not wanting to go into the family's medical practice — he went to sea as a cabin boy and stayed there for six years, sailing around the world. He landed in \u003cstrong\u003eSan Francisco in 1871\u003c\/strong\u003e speaking little or no English, took whatever work he could get, and found his way into engraving and lithography shops where he learned the trade properly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe started his own printing business in \u003cstrong\u003e1873\u003c\/strong\u003e and became one of the first printers working in lithography on the West Coast. In 1874 he went into partnership with Frederick Beuhler making pictorial cuts by zincography, then a new etching technique. His plant burned down twice, in \u003cstrong\u003e1884\u003c\/strong\u003e and again in \u003cstrong\u003e1886\u003c\/strong\u003e, and he rebuilt both times. By the 1890s he was running a factory in San Francisco with branches in Portland and Seattle, and the Schmidt name became one of the two or three that every California packing house knew.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe imprint on this sheet reads \u003cem\u003eFresno\u003c\/em\u003e rather than San Francisco, which tells you the firm had put a plant down in the middle of the valley where the fruit actually was.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌾 Fresno\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFresno grew up around agriculture and the railroad, in the flat heart of the San Joaquin Valley, and by the middle of the twentieth century it was moving more fruit than almost anywhere on earth. Grapes, plums, peaches and apricots — exactly the five fruits painted onto these cards — came out of the surrounding country by the trainload, and every crate of them needed a label that would stand out on a warehouse floor stacked ten high. That is the pressure that produced artwork like this: not a gallery commission, but a fight for a buyer's eye at forty feet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❔ Anthony Abbate\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnthony Abbate Fruit Distributors, Inc.\u003c\/strong\u003e of Fresno appears on this label and on other Royal Blush sheets, and the firm remains one of the valley's undocumented ones — no founding date, no family history in any record reachable online. Several of the archives that would hold it, including the California business registry and the digitised California newspaper collections, block automated access, so this is a closed door rather than an empty room. A Fresno city directory or the Fresno Bee's own archive would very likely open it, and that is exactly the kind of thread a local collector is best placed to pull.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Display Ideas\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🃏 \u003cstrong\u003eGame room, card table or bar\u003c\/strong\u003e — this is the obvious home for it, and it earns the spot.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🍑 \u003cstrong\u003eKitchen grouping\u003c\/strong\u003e with other California fruit labels — the magenta ground makes it the loudest thing on the wall.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🖼️ \u003cstrong\u003eFramed alone\u003c\/strong\u003e — at 11 by 4 1\/2 inches the proportion suits a long horizontal frame over a doorway.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e🎁 \u003cstrong\u003eFor a poker player\u003c\/strong\u003e — a genuine period royal flush, printed by a man who went to sea at fourteen.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎁 Who Collects These\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCrate label collectors\u003c\/strong\u003e treat California fruit labels as the great popular art of American agriculture, and Schmidt sheets sit at the top of that field. \u003cstrong\u003ePoker, gambling and playing-card collectors\u003c\/strong\u003e cross over for anything with a hand printed on it, and a royal flush is the hand they want. \u003cstrong\u003eFresno and San Joaquin Valley local historians\u003c\/strong\u003e take it as a piece of the valley's trade. And \u003cstrong\u003egraphic designers\u003c\/strong\u003e want it for the lettering, which is worth a long look on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Frequently Asked Questions\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIs it original?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes — an original stone-lithographed crate label, unused, never applied to a crate. His note on it: little to no wear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat are the fruits on the cards?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAce: a pair of red-brown plums. King: an orange peach. Queen: a dark purple plum. Jack: a smaller orange apricot. Ten: two bunches of red grapes. They are the valley's own crops, which is the point of the design.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy is there no joker?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBecause a joker would spoil it. A royal flush made with a wild card is not the same hand as a natural one, and the slogan on the middle card is \"Can't Be Beat.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere was the fruit grown?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label does not say. Fresno appears only as the distributor's main office.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHow should I frame it?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA long horizontal at 11 by 4 1\/2 inches, so give it generous space top and bottom rather than a tight mat. Black or deep plum picks up the magenta ground; cream lifts the gold lettering.\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-1950s-sunset-crate-label-fresno-ca-bright-and-beautiful-americana\"\u003eVintage 1950s Sunset Brand California Grapes Zinfandel Crate Label 🍇 — Packed by Joseph Gazzara, 1270 Linden Ave., Fresno CA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-fantasia-crate-label-fresno-ca-dancer-treasures-gifts\"\u003eVintage Fantasia Brand Fruit Crate Label 💃 — 1980s Tri-Boro Fruit Co. 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