Vintage 1960s Desert Rat Crate Label 🍎 Joe Phillips Inc, Queen Creek AZ and Fresno CA, Prospector Art

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Original 1960s crate label for the Desert Rat brand — the sheet reads PACKED FOR AND DISTRIBUTED BY JOE PHILLIPS, INC. and prints two places, QUEEN CREEK, AZ 85242 and FRESNO, CA 93711. It was printed by Stecher-Traung-Schmidt of San Francisco, whose imprint reads STECHER-TRAUNG-SCHMIDT S.F. CALIF.

This label measures 13 inches × 4 inches and was used on produce cartons during the mid‑20th century.

This is a New Old Stock example, unused and unmounted, with strong original color and clean edges. Stored flat.

Joe Phillips, Inc. was a family‑run produce operation active during the post‑war period, marketing fruit under distinctive brand names such as Desert Rat. The company operated into the late 20th century and was associated with California’s table‑grape and tree‑fruit industry.

Desert Rat crate labels are collected for their bold branding and representation of mid‑century agricultural packaging.

🌵 What the Label Actually Prints

• DESERT at the left and RAT at the right, in heavy italic block capitals graded yellow into orange, with the artwork between them
• PRODUCE OF U.S.A., lower left
• A round blue seal lettered PACKERS & SHIPPERS around the rim, with JOE PHILLIPS, INC. across a banner and FRESNO, CALIF. in the lower rim
• QUEEN CREEK, AZ 85242 (left of the seal) and FRESNO, CA 93711 (right of the seal)
• PACKED FOR AND DISTRIBUTED BY JOE PHILLIPS, INC. in the maroon base band
• STECHER-TRAUNG-SCHMIDT S.F. CALIF. — the printer's imprint, in microtype set into the narrow green ground-strip at the bottom left

No fruit word is printed on this sheet and no fruit appears in the artwork. What the picture shows is a smiling old prospector in a slouch hat with a corn-cob pipe, tan coat over a red shirt, with a grey burro looking over his shoulder, on a graded turquoise-to-yellow sky above a desert floor of saguaro, prickly pear, palms and violet mountains. Two green five-pointed stars flank the base-band line.