{"product_id":"vintage-70s-high-hand-pear-label-brings-loomis-charm-life-treasures","title":"Vintage 1970s High Hand Crate Label 🍐 Loomis, CA, Poker, Four Aces, Historic!","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWho Packed High Hand Pears in Loomis? 🃏 HIGH-HAND Pears, the Four Aces Label from Loomis, California\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 10 1\/4\" x 7 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\/vungi8Gpqxo\" 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\u003eNow here's a label that knows how to play its cards. A hand in a dark blue sleeve and a crisp white shirt cuff reaches out of a black circle holding four aces fanned out, spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds, and HIGH-HAND blazes across the top in big orange letters edged in yellow and green. Pears sweeps across the middle in white script outlined in red, all on a deep royal blue ground. In poker, four aces is about as good as it gets, only a straight flush beats it, and that was exactly the point the growers were making about their fruit. I think it's one of the smartest brand names in the whole crate label world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🏷️ Every Word on the Label\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHIGH-HAND\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHAND GRADED, MOUNTAIN FRUIT\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePears\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLOOMIS FRUIT GROWERS ASSOCIATION\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGROWERS, PACKERS \u0026amp; SHIPPERS\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLOOMIS, CALIFORNIA 95650\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLOUIS ROESCH CO. LITHO. S.F. CALIF., the printer's credit in tiny type down in the corner\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back is blank, with the design showing through faintly in reverse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e📮 The ZIP Code Tells You When\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTake a look at the end of the address line: 95650. The five-digit ZIP Code didn't exist until July 1, 1963, when the Post Office introduced it, so this printing can't be any older than that. The High-Hand design itself goes back a lot further, to the 1920s, and dealers who handle both call the version with the ZIP the more recent printing and put it in the 1970s, which is where I date mine. Same four aces, same hand, just a later press run.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🂡 The \"Four Aces\" Brand\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe High-Hand label was in use by 1923, and in the fruit trade it was often just called the \"Four Aces\" brand. The trademark file at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gives the first use as May 1, 1923. The association filed for HIGH HAND on May 21, 1926 and it was registered on September 14, 1926, covering fresh fruits, namely cherries, plums, peaches, pears, persimmons, quinces, nectarines, apricots and grapes. They kept that mark alive for more than eighty years, renewing it in 1966 and again in 1986, and it wasn't until 2007 that it was finally allowed to expire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHigh-Hand was the association's top grade, the very best fruit it packed. A second label, \"Our Pick\", went on the grade just below it. So when a crate showed up in an eastern market with these four aces on the end, the buyer knew he was getting the best Loomis had.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🍐 Hand Graded Mountain Fruit\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Loomis Fruit Growers Association was incorporated in April 1901 with 18 charter members, and it was the very first member association of the California Fruit Exchange. In 1923 it set up its own quality-control system, sending inspectors out to check the packing right on the ranches, which is what that HAND GRADED promise on the label was all about. Then in 1926, the same year the trademark was registered, it built the High Hand Fruit Sheds as its central packing plant, and during harvest as many as 100 workers packed \"Mountain Grown\" fruit there under the HIGH-HAND label for markets all over the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere's a little piece of local history I love: the workers' names are still written on the posts and rafters of that old shed. It's still standing, and today it houses a garden nursery, a café and shops that carry the High-Hand name. The packing itself ended in 2001, when Loomis Fruit Growers closed as the last operating fruit shed in all of Placer County.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e⚓ The Blue Anchor and the Exchange\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe California Fruit Exchange was incorporated in 1901 by growers from throughout the state, first as the California Fresh Fruit Exchange, and George H. Cutter, one of its founders, suggested an anchor as its symbol as early as 1903. It was first used in 1904, slowly caught on as the company's logo, and in 1923 it was registered as a trademark for the Exchange's highest quality fruit. The Exchange's headquarters in Sacramento, the Blue Anchor Building, was finished in 1931 and dedicated to Cutter, and it served the Exchange from 1932 to 1966.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🚂 Loomis and the Foothill Fruit Country\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlacer County's fruit story goes way back. The first carload of fresh fruit shipped out of California for the eastern markets left Newcastle for Chicago around 1879, and by 1889 fruit shipping houses were running in Newcastle, Penryn and Loomis. The town of Loomis went through a few names on the way. A Placer post office opened there in 1861, it became Smithville in 1862 and Pino in 1869, and in 1890 the Southern Pacific settled on Loomis, after James Loomis, who at one time was the whole town all by himself: saloon keeper, railroad agent, express agent and postmaster. Loomis grew into the second largest fruit-shipping station in Placer County, and the High Hand and Blue Goose packing sheds still sit along Taylor Road by the tracks. The town didn't officially incorporate until December 17, 1984.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003e🖨️ Louis Roesch Co., San Francisco\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tiny line in the corner is the printer. Louis Roesch was born in 1856, a native of Stuttgart who came to America in 1872 and founded his San Francisco lithography firm in 1879. His son, Louis Roesch Jr., took it over and ran it for decades until his death in 1959. After the 1906 earthquake the plant moved to Mission and 15th Streets. A man named Michael Davos started working there in 1951 and eventually worked his way up to buying the company in 1986, and the old plant closed in the 2000s. Think about that, a shop that was printing labels before the ZIP Code, before the fruit sheds, before the four aces, and still at it when this one came off the press.\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-lolilla-crate-label-finley-ca-1950s-treasures-gifts-home-gifts\"\u003eVintage 1950s Lolilla Brand Lake County Mountain Bartlett Pears Crate Label 🍐 — Lolilla Orchards, Finley CA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1960s-camel-mountain-pears-crate-label-loomis-ca-desert-decor\"\u003eVintage Late 1960s-90s Camel Mountain Pears Crate Label 🍐 Loomis CA, Desert Decor\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/1950s-rancheria-pear-label-native-american-scene-vintage-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1950s Rancheria Bartlett Pears Crate Label 🍐 Native American Teepee Scene Suisun Valley Blue Anchor California Fruit Exchange\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":46955300946152,"sku":"VAG-9044678770920","price":8.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.6559391354_dzzm.jpg?v=1785442120","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-70s-high-hand-pear-label-brings-loomis-charm-life-treasures","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}