Vintage Dominator Brand Crate Label ✈️ WWII Fighter Art, T.O. Tomasello Co. Watsonville California

Who Packed Dominator Brand Vegetables? ✈️ Dominator Brand Vegetable Crate Label, a Fighter Diving with Its Guns Blazing

Size: 9" x 7" ~ Unused.

This one's a showstopper. A silver fighter plane comes screaming down out of a deep blue sky, the gun in its propeller hub spitting fire, and huge red and yellow DOMINATOR letters run right up the label underneath it. The plane carries the old white star with a red center in a blue circle on its fuselage and both wings, and the blue fades to a green glow down in the corner. It's the tall vegetable version of the Dominator label, and my photos really don't do the colors justice.

🏷️ What's Printed on It

• PACKED AND SHIPPED BY
• T.O.TOMASELLO CO.
• MAIN OFFICE WATSONVILLE CALIF.
• DOMINATOR BRAND
• PRODUCE OF U.S.A.

The back is plain, with the big lettering showing through a little in reverse.

⭐ The Red-Centered Star

That star is the best clue to when this artwork was drawn. American military planes started wearing that insignia on May 19, 1917. In May 1942 the red center was taken off, because in combat it could be mistaken for the red sun of Japan's Hinomaru, and the white side bars were made official in June 1943. So the artist drew this fighter with the star American planes carried right up to the spring of 1942. The Ephemera Society of America calls it a fictional World War II fighter, and I'd agree, although that gun firing out through the propeller hub puts me in mind of the Bell P-39 Airacobra, which really did have a 37 mm cannon firing through the center of its hub.

🥬 T.O. Tomasello Co. of Watsonville

The T.O. Tomasello Co. shipped produce such as tomatoes and celery out of Watsonville, and Dominator wasn't its only brand. It also packed under TOT, Tri X, Jerry and Hi-Toney labels. This tall Dominator went on vegetables, and there was a long Dominator tomato label too. Watsonville was laid out in 1852 by John H. Watson and D. S. Gregory, down at the southern end of Santa Cruz County by the Pajaro River, and it's still one of the most important farming towns in the country, growing strawberries, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and raspberries.

🖼️ Display

Crate 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. Old stock like this doesn't come back. Once the supply for sale is gone and these labels are framed in homes and galleries, they will be very hard to get.

Imagine this amazing vintage advertising hanging as home decor in any room of your home instead of a museum!