We won’t pretend to have a deep knowledge of typography. But we absolutely have a deep and abiding appreciation for it, especially in product design. Packaging has to protect a product, but it also has to get someone to buy it. Putting together a design that is both informational and attractive is no small skill. A testament to that is that two of our fresh to market vintage picks this week are packaging.
Display typefaces can be a handy way to date a package since, like so many other things, they go in and out of style. Just like a modern costume designer knows how long a hemline should be for the 1920s, a book cover designer would also know what fonts to use for a book set in the 1920s.
Antique and vintage packaging is also fun to collect because as Linda says below, the package lasted longer than the product. After the gramophone needles were used up, the tin remained because it was attractive and useful small storage. It’s hard to think of a current everyday item with a package vintage collectors will be enjoying in fifty years.
And with that, we present this week’s fresh to market vintage…
Art Pottery Bud Vase
This is such a delightful little vase. Perfectly proportioned and expertly decorated by master craftsman Frank Massarella. Massarella found pottery at a young age and founded Massarella Pottery, Gallery. and Clay school in Ojai, CA in 1982. He is one of a group of renowned potters living and working in the Ojai Valley. He sold the school in 2013 but continues to teach there. You can learn more about him here and more about the school here.
Frank Massarella Small Art Pottery Vase, $ 24.95
-Pam, Vintage Renude
W.S. Harris Confectionery Box Salem Mass.
I love a souvenir of a place and time, especially if it is a bit of ephemera from a store in Salem, MA and I know the shop’s owner’s name. I used the same skills I use researching my antique or pictorial china to find out more about the shop and owner who commissioned the candy box’s manufacture in Germany before WWI. I am a historian at heart and love to uncover the story behind people and places. I tried something new and joined a Facebook group for Salem MA history. Salem has a history that includes much more than witch trials, pirates, ship captains and McIntire Houses. I spent the good part of the day communicating with Salemites, one who owns one of these boxes in another color and another who is a friend of the couple who are currently living in that building. All this from a folded bit of pasteboard with a twill tape handle. What a find.
Candy Box from Salem MA, $ 79.99
-Mary Ellen, AuntHattiesAttic
Celluloid toothpick holder & 3 tins c 1920s
Instant collection of vintage smalls – a celluloid match or toothpick holder + 3 different tins dating to the 1920s. The holder is presumed to be a souvenir from one of the big national parks and the tins are reminders of the days when the containers outlived the contents.
Vintage Smalls, Celluloid Holder and Three Tins, $35
-Linda, Selective Salvage
Cast Bronze Faun with Flauts
The Greeks called them satyrs, the Romans called them fauns and we call them half goat and half man. Known for representing peace and fertility, they are most often represented in playful poses like this guy, prancing about and playing his flauts. This piece of cast bronze has a nice thick applied patina of verdigris, making it look old. In reality, it’s probably mid-century.
Fonderia Deluca Cast Bronze Faun Playing Flauts, $150.
–Laurie, NextStage Vintage
Those are our fresh to market vintage picks for this first Sunday in April. Can you picture the faun dancing and playing his way through a field of daffodils? We can for sure. And since it’s getting to be Easter time, we also think about one vintage package that we really miss…the plastic L’eggs panty hose eggs. Whomever thought of packaging panty hose in honking big plastic eggs was a genius.
Like what we do? Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter that arrives full of all our posts from the previous week. Don’t miss a post!
If you aren’t a fan of typography or packaging, you might be after reading this post that started with an antique J.F. Howard salad dressing bottle and ends with fisticuffs, a silent film star and a tiger.
