Summertime in Detroit: The Sun is shinning & the humidity is climbing!
In town, between working on the road, and checking out an occasional estate sale. Thought I'd give one near my original residence a chance.
I'm interested in anything that was "....made in Detroit." From a cultural perspective as well as a personal one.
Viola! Old Detroit neighborhood....old house....what more could ya ask for?
Clothing & furniture(some very nice stuff, by the way) on the ground floor. Upstairs off limits.....no garage....so into the basement I went....with my trusty flashlight I braved the musty cellar.....
And what was waiting for me you ask? Tucked away in a secluded closet was this gem: a J. L. Hudson's bottle of "double distilled" Witch Hazel!
Label is a bit wrinkled....but in grand shape despite its buried environment...
Even the original price tag....price long ago faded into oblivion!
Another piece of DETROIT history: "Love Poem to a Black Junkie" by Paulette C. White!
Mrs. White's 1st published book of poetry....1975 1st edition.....and signed to boot!
Pulled out of an old suitcase!
And lastly...an ancient Merck & Co benzocaine medicine bottle!
Merck & Co has been around since 1891,,,and is still one of the drug companies in the world!
Benzocaine is used in cough drops & is a pain killer! Dig the "old-school" cork stopper!
I was (and still will) going to blog about some of the other relics I've come across in the past few weeks....but todays finds demanded that I give them "their due" ASAP.
It was a hoarder sale....one of those houses practically exploding with junk. Packed to the rafters with treasures of all sorts.
As ramshackle a sale as I've ever been too....the upstairs packed with old newspapers and magazines from days of old to the present.
I braved the mildewy stench, as did a few brave others, just to see what may have been hidden beneath the rubble...and there I found it.
Cover design by Rex Cleveland of Rhinelaner, WI (Home of the HODAG!)
An "Art" magazine of sorts. "Success" from 1933.....never heard of any such mag....for a buck who could go wrong?
Well....a little research filled in the blanks....remember those adds in the back of old comic books & Sports Illustrated that asked "Do you like to draw?" Yuppers, this magazine was basically an advertisement for the company selling the home course teaching a person to become a "Commercial Artist."
The front cover has the remnants of some 1968 "Happy Easter" stamps stuck to it....I'm not going to attempt to remove them....why damage the cover?
"The Federal School of Applied Cartooning, founded in 1914 as a branch of the Bureau of Engraving, Inc., to train illustrators for both the growing printing industry and the Bureau itself. Artists who received this training through these home study courses entered the fields of newspapers, printing and advertising.[1] Joseph Almars (1884–1948), who was born in Minneapolis, was both the vice president of the Bureau of Engraving and the president of Art Instruction, Inc."
A pretty snazzy way to show off the people who had actually completed the courses and gone on to a career as an artist! Charles M.Schulz, the creator of the PEANUTS comics (Charlie Brown & Snoopy....you blockhead!) was an instructor for the school at one time!
Anywhoo....this ancient mag is from 1933 and has some awesome art in its pages....some brilliant examples of "Art Deco" and "Art Nouveau"!
Lets assume the magazine was sent to a "Ms. Jean A. Watch" of apartment 12B
And now...the art! Enjoy!
Magazine is in great shape.
Good old "Shedd's"! Estate sales & Antique malls alike stock the artifacts of a once thriving business....a throwback to an age when DETROIT was the manufacturing center of the USA.
The Shedd's-Bartush Co. of Detroit began life as a producer of margarine & peanut butter in 1945. Salad dressing and other food-stuffs would follow.
You can still see a remnant of the original company in the name of the popular (not so much these days) margarine "Shedd's Country Crock". Numerous sell-offs and mergers stuck the blade in the Shedd's-Bartush empire.
I recently picked up a SHEDD's brand coffee tin....the 1lb variety circa the late 1940's/1950's.
Same color scheme as the peanut butter jars. I'm always looking to add to a "set"! Shedd-Bartush Foods, INC of Detroit Michigan!
Big fan of the old school tins....Das Bobo's sire related to me how he can still remember his Mother cutting her hands on the sharp edges of "those coffee cans"! No wonder the plastic lid was soon to be en vouge!
I have several other Shedd's containers.....Glasses,other jars from other eras & other products, various other buckets....but I prefer the older style with the Elfs.....just seems to represent that whimsical optimism of the 1950's...as if the "good times" for DETROIT and the USA would never end.
Everybody knows "Mr Peanut", Robert Downey Jr was his voice for 5 minutes recently! PLANTERS Peanuts are the industry standard, the Coke-a-Cola of snack foods. But Peanut butter? Yeah, they had their hands in everything at one time.
I came across this old jar in the Metro area, LOCAL estate sale....one of those that catch your eye & you can't believe what you're looking at!
One of those rare old jars that not only has the paper label intact but the original lid to boot! I usually pass on all but the most desirable jars without labels....otherwise its a lid on any old jar, right? But this gem had both! And it's pretty exceptional condition!
Dating this old relics can be a bit sketchy....I'm not the type to obsess over old ads on microfiche....OCD for you, not me!
But these ads did recently appear on Ebay....one an actual ad & the other an ancient PLANTERS Coloring book....which help to date the jar.
The top ad is dated 1949...showing a jar of PLANTERS PB with a different label.
The second, a picture of a PLANTERS coloring book from 1947, shows the PB jar with the label the same as the one in my possession! VIOLA!
The lid is in outstanding shape....and the label still has very vivid coloring....a few rips, but otherwise great shape. I did show a picture of the jar to a guy selling PLANTERS memorabilia at a local Bottle & Jar show this fall. He practically flipped out over the condition of the label itself....it was in better shape than anything he had for sale....my luck...."Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hidrant".......
