Showing posts with label seed packet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seed packet. Show all posts

Thursday, June 8, 2017

To-Die-For Litho Columbine Seed Packet from Toronto

Be still my heart...I love this one.  
I have not found many packets for the Steele Bros., Toronto. They are an old company.  I think I found a 19th century reference to them.
There were two more packets but my computer ate them.















Tuesday, June 6, 2017

1906-ish - Perky Portulaca Packet from Somerville, MA

This packet of portulaca seeds harks back to the last century in its design.  
I find it charming   
If it ever stops raining and gets warm in New England I'll plant some.

I don't think of seed companies when I hear Somerville.  I think of the Museum of Bad Art (really!) and some great places to eat, breweries, a cidery and other fun urban living places.




Monday, June 5, 2017

1910ish - Luxurious Litho of a Lima Bean

Can't help it!  I am just drawn to the the lithos on seed packets.  Maybe it's all the little dots...the rich colors...the simple shapes...  Whatever it is, they make me feel good.






Friday, April 18, 2014

Proofs for a Ferry Seed Packet

This is a wonderful find from Ebay if you are
interested in how things made. ..seed packets in particular. 

The Ebay description was as follows:
"This is a genuine original one of a kind progressive proof book used by stone litho printers to check the quality of each stone and it’s functions! This is from the files of Calvert Litho, one of the highest quality lithographers at the turn of the century.

Calvert was the most expensive lithographer in the country, but Mr. Ferry was a proud man and probably wanted the best in everything, especially his own products! ...
Surprisingly clean for a progressive proof book kept in the back room of a printing shop with all 13 pages intact! Approximate size: 6” x 8”."

Before you scroll down, estimate how many colors were used to give the above effect!

from Wikipedia: Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. ... The initial technique involved the use of multiple lithographic stones, one for each colour, and was still extremely expensive when done for the best quality results. Depending on the number of colours present, a chromolithograph could take months to produce, by very skilled workers. However much cheaper prints could be produced by simplifying both the number of colours used, and the refinement of the detail in the image. Cheaper images, like advertisements, relied heavily on an initial black print (not always a lithograph), on which colours were then overprinted. To make an expensive reproduction print as what was once referred to as a “’chromo’”, a lithographer, with a finished painting in front of him, gradually created and corrected the many stones using proofs to look as much as possible like the painting in front of him, sometimes using dozens of layers.









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