Best of Breed & Best in Sweepstakes Prizes
1941 Great Dane Orange Crate Label
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Our top prizes for
the January 9, 2006, Great Dane Club of Mid-Florida Specialty –
Best of Breed and Best in Sweepstakes -- are a unique
combination of Great Dane and Florida history.
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photo
credit: Florida State Archives |
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Visitors to Florida during the period the Great Dane crate
label was created would drive by groves like these,
planted close to the two-lane highways. Click photo for larger
view. |
When Great Dane
folks think of Florida, we generally think of the Florida
Circuit.
But most
other folks think of oranges, which have been an important part
of the state’s economy for over a century. Early Florida citrus
growers wanted to make sure wholesale buyers kept their
oranges foremost in mind after the crates had been shipped north
for sale.
To catch the
buyer’s eye at these wholesale auctions, growers commissioned
paper labels for their wooden crates. Each grower vied for the
brightest colors, boldest artwork, and most memorable brand
names.
Printing companies
in Florida and across the country printed millions of these
labels each year from early in the twentieth century through the
1940s. By the 1950s, cardboard boxes, with brand names printed
directly on the cardboard, had replaced wooden crates with paper
labels pasted on by hand. Growers and packers discarded the
leftover labels, leaving the few that remained to become
collectors’ items.
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photo
credit: Florida State Archives |
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Picking oranges by hand was a labor-intensive job. The
wooden crates are the large field crates which did not
have crate labels. Click photo for larger view. |
Growers typically
chose themes for their labels. A visual theme -- birds, sports,
or flowers -- was common. Others opted for a sales theme, such
as brand reliability or the juiciness of their oranges. And a
few selected a personal theme of children or family homes. Then
the talented commercial artists at the printing companies turned
the growers’ ideas into artistic reality.
The most prolific
print houses were on the West Coast, where the use of labels on
crates of California produce – citrus, fruit, and vegetables –
began a decade or so earlier than in Florida.
One prominent
company, Schmidt Lithograph of San Francisco, had sales offices
in cities across the country, including Orlando, Florida. Their
salesmen took orders to reprint existing labels and tempted
growers and packers with new label designs created by company
artists.
|
photo
credit: Florida State Archives |
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Diorama of picking Florida oranges,also showing the field crates.
Click photo for larger view. |
Over the years and
after several mergers, the company became Stecher-Traung-Schmidt.
In the early 1990s, collectors acquired its archives.
The Great Dane
label (illustrated at the top of the page) was found in the
Schmidt archives with a file date of January 6, 1941. It is
reproduced in Florida Citrus Crate Labels: An Illustrated
History by Jerry Chicone, Jr., and Brenda Eubanks Burnette (Burnette
& Associates, West Palm Beach, Florida, 1996).
But the fawn Dane
pictured on the vibrant blue label of the O.G. Knowles Company
is not the depiction of an actual dog, according to one the sons
of the late Oscar G. Knowles, company founder.
Rather, it is a symbol of
safety and security, so the buyer could be confident in his
choice of brand.
|
photo
credit: Florida State Archives |
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The interior of a mid-twentieth-century citrus packing
house in Central Florida. Click photo for larger view. |
And the bright
colors of the citrus crate labels were also quality codes for
the wholesalers -- blue for top quality, red for second best,
and yellow for commercial grade. Of course, from the Dane
lover’s point of view, any label with a Great Dane on it is
first quality!
The authors and
the publisher of Florida Citrus Crate Labels have very
kindly given the Great Dane Club of Mid-Florida one-time
permission to reproduce this unique label for the Best of Breed
and Best in Sweepstakes prizes at our January 2006 specialty
show.
We thank Jerry
Chicone and Brenda Burnette for their generosity that has
allowed us to share this glimpse of Great Dane and Florida
history with you.
To enter the Great
Dane Club of Mid-Florida’s January 9, 2006, Specialty, please
click
MB-F at left.
The O.G. Knowles Company of Deland
We don’t know why Oscar G. Knowles chose a Great Dane to
symbolize the quality of his oranges, but we certainly applaud
his good judgment. We do know that he and his wife moved to
Deland in 1927 from Indiana, by way of Nebraska.
The family prospered in their new town, where Mr. Knowles was
at first an officer in the Deland Citrus Fruit Company. In the
late 1930s, he formed the O.G. Knowles Company, which used the
Great Dane brand and label for its oranges. These years were the
zenith of the Florida orange crate label. Over 400 packing
houses shipped more than 30-million crates of citrus a year,
each bearing a colorful paper label.
Mr. Knowles worked for decades in the citrus business as a
buyer and a grower and later as a fern grower. He and his wife
spent the rest of their lives in Deland, and his descendents
continue his agricultural interests in Florida today.
When the Knowles moved to Deland, the Volusia County seat was
the center of a large citrus area as well as the home of Stetson
College. Stetson still exists, now as an outstanding university,
but a series of freezes has forced much of the citrus business
further down the Florida Peninsula.
Although Volusia County cannot boast the citrus production of
earlier years, it is still the home of yesteryear’s Great Dane
orange crate label and the site of the first shows on today’s
Florida Circuit.
For a list of the 2006 Florida Circuit shows, please click on
GDCMF at left to visit our Events page. |
