Eureka! Found Some Beautiful Rice's Seed Packets

Most seed companies bought stock seed packets from printers and had their name printed over the stock image. Rice's, on the other hand, commissioned distinctive artwork for its envelopes. (I got that bit of info from an auction description so take it with a grain of salt...but it does look to be accurate.)

 I could not find any images of the packets for weeks, finally writing to the Ephemera Society of America as they mentioned online they had some and did intend to put them up some day.  I said I hoped they would!!  An hour later I found some small images, then the large images here.
Weird.

The packets are unique to Rice as far as I can tell.  I haven't seen them elsewhere (not that I am a packet collector). Another interesting detail is there is no lithographers name on the packet.

Sweet Pea Packets and a Buckbee Postcard

 

 

 

 

This is interesting.  A printer's proof sheet for seed packet art! Nice art work, too.

An Alliaceous Esculent!

That title was picked off the first sentence in an 1824 article on onion growing in Great Britain.  It is so much fun to say!  Your tongue and mouth get a real workout.  To speak it aloud you needs to adopt a rather studied nonchalance.  It helps to raise one eyebrow.

The pungent rotundity of the onion images on seed packets is so captivating!  Those teensy weensy little seeds grow into wonderful heavy handfuls of yummy.

Wethersfield Connecticut is near here.  The Wethersfield onion was one of the onion superstars of the early centuries of our country.  

Great page on the Wethersfield Red has been posted by the New England Historical Society.
The Rise and Fall of the Wethersfield Red Onion

Yankee Magazine about "Oniontown".

Alien space ship onion hovering?