Pretty pieces of paper. I like them. So I’ve made a collection of them, gathered from all sorts of places. I like the artistry of them. Sometimes I see some humour or something peculiar in them that makes me collect them and put them in albums, occasionally to look at. Here’s a selection of some of my paper ephemera.
Beer labels – all Australian. Some older iterations of products that are still around, and some others not so much. My Dad was a KB drinker, in longnecks and later in those gold cans. Back in the 1960s he also drank DA (Dinner Ale) and Flag Ale.
Here’s a tempting morsel, for lovers of ham and tongue sausage.
Believe it or not, these lovely little works of art – chromolithographs on glazed paper – were fez labels. You know, those funny Turkish hats? Ataturk banned the fez in 1925 because he wanted Turkish men to westernise.
Read more about fez labels here.
The middle label is tomato sauce: I know that much. As for the others, well, the Japanese one might be some kind of toy (Omocha) but otherwise it’s a mystery to me. I believe the one of the left may be an Indonesian textile label.
Some Japanese tin can labels. The English instructions on the fish label are classic: “You may adopt the any methods of cookery”.
Jam tin labels. I recall my grandmother used to buy melon and ginger jam in big tins.
Lollies and chocolates. Yum!
It often surprises me to see works of art like this on the inside of cigar box lids.
Some lovely Japanese labels. Top left is a cigar box. Bottom right a varnish label. Aside from that I’ve no idea. But they are very pretty, no?
Non-alcoholic dandelion drink? And the tobacco label at right is from a company in Newcastle, NSW.
What ozone has to do with candles I cannot say. But the design appealed to me.
Japan again. These are matchbox labels advertising various tea rooms. Note the man wearing a fez!
Read more about matchbox labels here.
