Vintage 1940s King David Brand Sunkist Crate Label 🍊 — Yorba Orange Growers Association, Yorba District, Placentia CA

Who Packed King David Brand Oranges? 👑 King David Brand Sunkist Oranges, Yorba Orange Growers Association, Placentia, California

Size: 11" x 10" ~ Little to no wear.

What a face! A white-bearded king in a jeweled gold crown and a red robe, looking off into the distance like he's surveying his orange groves. This is a vintage 1940s King David Brand crate label for Sunkist oranges, grown and packed by the Yorba Orange Growers Association of the Yorba District, Placentia, Orange County, California, and never pasted on a box. The painting on this one is just gorgeous, you can count the hairs in that beard.

🔍 What's on it

The king himself, crowned and white-bearded, stands beside KING DAVID BRAND, and below runs the packer's line: GROWN AND PACKED BY YORBA ORANGE GROWERS ASSOCIATION, YORBA DISTRICT, PLACENTIA, CALIFORNIA, ORANGE COUNTY, GROWN IN U.S.A., with a Sunkist-wrapped orange in the corner.

📜 A 90-year-old brand

King David has a trademark record, and it tells a great story. The KING DAVID mark for fresh citrus fruit was first used on November 23, 1935, and registered on April 21, 1936 (No. 334,113) to the Associated Anaheim Growers. He didn't come alone! The same growers registered two more Bible names that very day, with the numbers right next to his: REBECCA (No. 334,111) and QUEEN ESTHER (No. 334,112), all three first used on the same November day in 1935.

And King David is still on the books. The mark has been renewed again and again, most recently for the sixth time in September 2025, and today it belongs to the Villa Park Orchards Association of Fillmore, California, an old Sunkist cooperative that forty-eight Villa Park growers started back in 1912. Rebecca is still alive too. Queen Esther wasn't so lucky; her registration was allowed to lapse in 1997.

🔥 From a fire to the Yorba Orange Growers

So why does this label say Yorba Orange Growers Association instead of Associated Anaheim Growers? In July of 1943 the Associated Anaheim Growers' packing house burned down. The board moved fast, set up the Yorba Orange Growers Association together with the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company, and had a brand new packing house running by October of 1944. That's what dates this label: with the Yorba name on it, it was printed after the fire, in the 1940s, and King David carried right on for the new association.

The Yorba house was part of the Sunkist family, licensed to pack only the fruit of the Sunkist growers who belonged to the association, which is why that Sunkist-wrapped orange sits in the corner. When it packed its last oranges in 2000, the Los Angeles Times called it one of the oldest packing houses in Orange County. The building was documented for the Historic American Buildings Survey, and that report is kept at UC Irvine. By the end of 2001 the packing house was gone and a business park stood on the land.

🏡 Display

Imagine hanging this vintage advertising on your wall as home decor in any room! That regal old king looks great framed in a kitchen, a den or a library, and it's a perfect gift for anybody named David, a Bible study friend, or anybody from Placentia, Yorba Linda, Anaheim or Orange County.

Crate 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.