Seed packets are what drew me into looking at the seed trade.
The early packets are what I enjoy the most. I love the soft texture of the lithography.
For a chromolithography intro, go to end of post.
The Label Man has written a nice "in a nutshell" introduction to packets. "Of the very early printers of antique seed packets you will find Genesse Valley Lithograph Co. who printed many of the Burts seed packets."
These first two are so lush!!
This nasturtium packet was represented as 1910.
Note it has red lines and less text. Its reverse side is at the bottom of this page.
This is the reverse of the packet at the top of the page.
Chromolithography
"Chromolithography, or the technique of "printing in colors," had a dazzling and meteoric life. After centuries of black ink on white paper, chromo-lithography burst onto the American scene about 1840 and then vanished by the 1930s. But during this nearly one hundred year period, chromolithography revolutionized the printing industry and intoxicated the world with lush colorful hues. It transformed calling cards, wedding announcements, greeting cards, tickets, cigar box labels, advertising posters and many other types of printed ephemera into eye-catching works of art that proved too beautiful to be thrown away after temporary use. " from THE JOHN and CAROLYN GROSSMAN COLLECTION
An excellent page on the process that makes it very clear.Lithographs are pulled from litho stones...a super fine limestone. Look HERE.
When I was in college in Philadelphia, the kitchen door's step stone was a litho stone from a former tenant, another art student. I lived in a what they called a trinity house, or a father, son, holy ghost house. It had 3 floors, each floor just one tiny room. The stairs were very narrow, steep and twisted and most people who lived in them had a story of sliding down the stairs when missing their step on the shallow treads.
Row Houses of Philadelphia
The Trinity is the smallest and therefore cheapest to construct, and it normally served as housing for the working-class or servants of larger properties nearby. These homes were often constructed on courts (mine was, with 3 trinity facing 3 others in a small courtyeard off a back ally) behind larger properties or in narrow alleys that divided larger blocks. The bandbox is typically no larger than sixteen feet on any side, with one room on each floor, rising two or three stories with enclosed winding stairs. The privies, or “necessaries,” were normally at the rear of the courts. - (When they modernized them with inside plumbing they took a little square along the front wall for a tiny bathroom that had a shower. )
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