1920's Whitman Salmagundi Chocolates Alphonse Mucha Art Nouveau tin

2 ancient(???) Whitman Chocolate tins.....
The 1st, the 1lb tin of the right, I picked up last winter while traveling the West coast of MI with Nosferatu...I liked it due to its style and age....the Art Nouveau style was a favorite of my greatly missed Godmother....she who passed too young & too soon. She had an Art degree from the University of MICHIGAN & passed her love of art on to me...being that I was the only other person in our family with any artistic skill! HA!!!
Anywho....these tins utilized the art of the GRATE Alphonse Mucha (1869-939). Look him & his works up if you're so inclined.
Whitman licensed the art from him & had the Tin-Deco Co of Baltimore make the candy tins in the 1920's.

I picked up the larger 2lb tin recently.....I like sets! I don't have the obsessive malaise...yet!
Reproductions of these tins were made in the late 1980's/early1990....
Now the question: Are these two 90+ year old tins or recent creations?
I've come across the repros....rounded edges and shallower boxes.....but I'm not so optimistic to think these two have survived all these decades in such incredible shape...
Some fading....the occasional dent & scratch....but I've come across others that looked like they'd been dragged down country roads behind a V-8 Ford!

I'll use 'em to store personal effects & heirlooms.....

The image of the woman was produced for the magazine La Plume in 1897...known as "Zodiac" it was a calendar. The image on both tins are stunning...

And regardless of their being authentic or reproductions... I think they are brilliant examples of how everyday items once where made with a dedication to craftsmanship that is long forgotten.
Keep an eye open...I've seen one recently in a nearby antique shop...for a reasonable price at that!

KRUN-CHEE Potato Chip tins & container

Back when DETROIT was the industrial hub of the USA, everything from autos to potato chips where made here in abundance.

     With auto factories popping up all over Metro-Detroit, savy entrepreneurs opened potato chip factories nearby to sell their product directly to the auto workers on their lunch breaks.

With over 40 different brands during DETROIT's "halcyon days", there are a number of vintage potato chip tins to be had at various estate sales, yard sales & flea markets.

      I've managed to pick up a number of KRUN-CHEE brand potato chips tins. All that I've seen, actually....

KRUN-CHEE was a Detroit brand that came under the ownership of Paul Zuckerman in 1952. Zuckerma already owned the Velvet Peanut Butter co.

I believe that 2 of the tins are from the "Velvet Era" of the company....the early to mid 1950's...

At some point the 3 "Norberts", modeled after Zuckerman's son, appear on the KRUN-CHEE tin.

BY 1957 KRUN-CHEE was sold to the Sunshine Biscuit Company of Cleveland, Oh. The large blue tin is from this era of the company.

The 4th container is a plastic chip "can"....I believe from the late 1960's/early 1970's....

I've come across one other KRUN-CHEE tin...a non-potato chip tin, that I'm currently pursuing....these 4 KRUN-CHEE containers are prime examples of the Potato Chip empire that existed in the Detroit area during the boom of the mid-20th century.

***UPDATE 2/2017***

Just last Thursday, at a local Estate sale, I came across the missing tin...a KRUN-CHEE Pop Corn tin! A bit weathered, but just what the doctor ordered! I've acquired all the various KRUN-CHEE tins I've come across....now to see if any odd ball tins pop up!

J. L. Hudson's brand Coffee Tin

"I've never seen one of those before...." Having started a conversation with the matronly antique dealer, I quickly discovered another poor soul who collected old coffee tins.
She was a bit brassy...Nosferatu didn't care for the banter but I welcomed the joshing. 
When shown the pic of barely half our collection she was impressed. "You've got more cans than I do!" Yeah....then I dropped the recently acquired BOMB on her....
I, by good fortune, had recently come across this J. L. Hudson's brand coffee tin...it didn't cost a King's ransom yet it wasn't my usual frugal purchase. I simply knew what I was looking at: An Ancient DETROIT rarity!
A 2nd such expert confirmed my hunch....."That was sold at the downtown store!" In the cafeteria....with the other food products! I swear...that Hudson's coffee is the best coffee I've ever tasted!" 

"A selected blend of Columbia Mara & Mocha"
I'll venture a guess, due to the small 1lb key wind tin, that this coffee vessel is from the late 1940's/early 1950's...
Searches of the 'ol Interweb proved inconclusive.....
A "One of a kind" find? Perhaps.....
A killer addition to a ridiculously extensive collection!

1934 Hamtramck Mayoral Communist Candidates Campaign Cards

Traveling the old forgotten alleys & ruins of Detroit, one finds many a strange relic from the distant past. So it was with these 2 ancient political campaign cards from Hamtramck for the Mayoral election of 1934.
Hamtramck is and was a suburb of metro Detroit. In the 30's it was predominantly Polish in its ethic makeup. It was also a hotbed for radicals & troublemakers!
George Kristalsky was born in Poland and immigrated to these shores...and brought with him the ideology of the times.
He was defeated in the '34 elections...along with 7 of his Communist brothern...which makes this decrepit card that much more awesome!

Hammer & Sickle telling a guy all he needed to know about these candidates! But HEY!!! At least they weren't those lousy FASCIST!!!

2nd card in blue as opposed to the black coloring of the 1st card!

Reverse side of the 1st card has the same info in Polish! 
Guys all long dead & buried....wonder how they'd view the political landscape of today? Probably prefer to stay dead to this shameful shambles that the Country has become...

And for good measure....my 1925 Street Directory of DETROIT....my source has some brilliant old junk/temporal artifacts....

Brilliant for its list of "All Night Car Services, Owl Cars, Hotels, Cemeteries, and Street Car Lines"! Maps of streets and surrounding countryside also genius!

JUMBO 7oz Peanut Butter Jar

The FRANK TEA & SPICE co of Cincinnati, Oh...makers of old Frank's Red Hot sauce...made peanut butter for ages....early 1900's till the 1960'2/70's...
Any of us have seen a slew of these JUMBO peanut butter jars....every Antique store worth their salt has a plentiful supply, most estate sales and even the more cosmopolitan garage sales will have one.
I'd never been interested in them...until reading a post on the "Jar Fetish™" sites...
"The JUMBO jars....produced for so long...have about 80 variations...different sizes, different lids, different eras...rarely will you come across one with a lid...."
Yuppers....that jumped out at me..."The lid is the key!" And here I found a 7oz jar, of the older variety, with its original lid!

Not the "grail" of peanut butter jars....but a rare find regardless!

All in a days scurraging!!

***UPDATE***  So...that lid I found is from the 1920's...one of the oldest JUMBO lids out there....not too shabby!

Potash & Turpentine

Another estate sale out in the hinterlands. Advertised as a "1850's farmhouse"....who could pass up a chance at some ancient artifacts buried out in the sticks?!?
Not I...Off I set in search of who knows what?
2 barns....full of "Horses-people" stuff! Harnesses & Horses collars...mostly useless things...useless to me anyways...off to the house!
Inside...most glassware & clothing....seemingly a bust.....then I noticed the basement with its "DO NOT ENTER" sign...being ignored by hoarders & employees alike! 
TO THE BAT-CAVE! Down a set of ramshackle stairs that even the Dog-Boy would have disapproved of! Again...nothing....dust & mold & a dank smell...people picking their way among the ruins...I had almost given up hope....until I saw a woman rummaging through an old cupboard....and there they were: An ancient prescription bottle....and, buried at the bottom...an old Velvet Peanut butter jar, dirty almost beyond recognition! 
The 'script bottle...looking like was just handed over yesterday to some farmer's daughter...."R.L. McCabe"...DETROIT, MICH. I have one other such bottle....who's label is torn almost beyond reading....this one is perfect. A bit of research provided ad's circa 1930's from DETROIT advertising McCabe's pharmacy! Who knows when they became defunct? A bottle of " Potassium permanganate"...A household oxidizing agent....good 'ol Potash!
And the Velvet jar...

Tucked away at the bottom of the cupboard....covered in dust & dirt....and filled with turpentine! Who can guess how long this jar had been siting down in the dungeon of gloom containing this piney concoction? An age & an age perhaps? Label torn & frayed....it took some cleaning & elbow grease...but it cleaned up rather well....artistic representation non-withstanding!

POPSY Peanut Butter Jar: "Pop goes the Weasel cuz the Weasel goes POP!"

Popsy Peanut Butter...a Velvet Nut Products. Inc creation...the same people who brought the Detroit area VELVET Peanut butter.

Predates the "Homogenized" Velvet brand, perhaps? Only research will tell!

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH COOKIE CUTTERS....a HUDSON's purchase

That typical estate sale basement....musty books & dusty records. Baubles and twine & buttons....and then you run across the cookie cutters.
Pennsylvania Dutch...those makers of kiddie stuff of a bygone age.
I came across this at an estate sale in Livonia this 'morn....

6 replica antique cookie cutters...did see on the interwebs that this box set is from"...the 1940's"...can't confirm....will look for more information...

Ma & Sonny Boy fixin' to fix the vittles....cuz what else have they got to do?
And the the kicker...

For those so obsessed...another Hudson's Department store purchase...

Another artifact for the vault...

Fresh, Pure...and back in circulation! Velvet Peanut Butter Heirlooms

Velvet Peanut butter, THE Detroit peanut butter. "Fresh, Pure, Delicious". Every kid knew those 3 words meant Peanut butter. Velvet brand peanut butter.
My brothers & I would always make sure to stop at the Velvet display back in the 1970's....the kids faces on the jar of Velvet always made us laugh. The FRESH kid looked like he meant trouble, like a natural born mixer with a couple of choir boys as siblings. We related to the implied threat of chaos that kid represented.
We all know, at least should, the history of Velvet. A Detroit truck driver, Paul Zuckerman, made a dream into an empire. I'll leave the bloviation to the children of a lesser god. Just watch the well done doc "Made in the Motor City" for the Velvet story...starting around the 13:28 mark.
 http://video.dptv.org/video/2365438277/
I made the journey to the hinterlands and came back with an old Velvet lid, an ancient Velvet Jar, and a plastic Velvet bucket.
Here's the lid...it doesn't go with the 2lb jar, but was near it in the dusty workshop in the basement...

"Crunchy" variety....77 cent

Slight scuffs...bit 'o rust...overall good condition.
The plastic bucket...it was being used to hold flame retardant....how apropos.

Needed a great deal of cleaning...

It's in decent enough shape...some scrapes and scuffs, discoloring and wear...

And the Jar...

No lid....label scuffed & torn at the bottom...

Took some slight yet careful cleaning...and the glass returned to a brilliant hue.
Now the specs that only a few crackpots really care aboot....

A "4930" on the bottom...the "Homogenized" process and sales pitch started with Velvet (Zuckerman claimed that Velvet was the 1st peanut butter to utilize the process) in 1944. A 1949 jar? Perhaps...

The other markings....a "Jug" shaped symbol, perhaps of the glass fabricator...and a lone 8.
You want to know more about Velvet? http://myjewishdetroit.org/2014/12/fresh-pure-delicious/
Cut-and-paste 'till your little black heart is content.
I always try to hit the estate sales in the "less traveled" areas...they seem to pay more dividends. Besides...how many times can you draw water from the same well before it runs dry? Who cares....not me, I've got other sales to hit home-slice! $3 for those 3 forgotten gems was all I had to part with....Instant Karma & succotash!