Can Label, Electric Brand Olney Succotash, Original Lithograph, Antique 1890s

This Electric Brand succotash label predates weight-marking laws entirely — dating it firmly to before 1906, and almost certainly to the 1890s.

• Maker: Electric Brand (Olney & Floyd)
• Materials: Stone lithograph paper
• Dimensions: 11.5" wide x 4" tall
• Origin: USA
• Era: Antique, circa 1890s (pre-1906)
• Condition: New Old Stock (NOS) — We have 2 available, 1 has a tear on the left border, we will sell the perfect one first. The other is in  excellent mint condition. Bith are Unused, NOS. Age-appropriate yellowing consistent with period. Please review photos closely before purchasing, as all sales are final.

A Goddess holds a light aloft, electricity flowing from a battery in her other hand, while two small children stand beside her, each holding a telephone — a canning company's sincere attempt to represent their brand as something luminous, modern, almost magical, at a moment when electricity and the telephone were still marvels rather than utilities. The reverse shows corn and beans with ornate red lettering: the actual succotash inside. Both sides are works of craft.

Frame it as Victorian American history, the history of electricity, or early advertising art — one of the most remarkable pieces of 19th-century American commercial lithography to survive into the present. A wonderful gift for a Victorian Americana collector, an electricity history enthusiast, or an advertising ephemera collector.

Stone lithography of the 1890s was the finest commercial printing in the world; the first offset press for paper wasn't produced until 1903, so everything before that was hand-made, plate by plate, color by color, taking three to four months per label design. This label predates all of it. A companion label — the Olney & Floyd Butterfly Brand squash label — is also available in our shop.

Browse our shop for more antique can labels and 19th-century ephemera to round out your collection.