Antique 1930s Sespe Brand Sunkist Lemon Crate Label 🍋 — Fillmore Lemon Assn., Fillmore, Ventura County CA

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This 1930s Sespe Brand crate label reads GROWN AND PACKED BY FILLMORE LEMON ASSN., FILLMORE, CALIF., VENTURA COUNTY — the association grew and packed the fruit. A lithographer's imprint is printed in the black lower-left border, but it will not resolve at the magnification available, so the credit to Schmidt Litho Co. of Los Angeles rests on the trade record rather than on anything legible on this sheet. Measuring 12 1/4" × 8 3/4", it represents early California citrus packaging in a square format.

The label remains New Old Stock, unused and unmounted, with no wear. Color remains strong with clean edges and an intact surface.

Square citrus crate labels from the 1930s are valued for their balanced proportions and strong graphic presence. This example is well suited for collectors of California agricultural history and crate label art.

🏷️ What Is Printed on This Label

Read off the sheet itself, verbatim — this is the label's own printed text, not a description of it:

• SESPE
• BRAND
• REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.
• GROWN AND PACKED BY
• FILLMORE LEMON ASSN.
• FILLMORE, CALIF.
• VENTURA COUNTY
• Sunkist  [on the depicted tissue wrapper]
• [bottom-left border imprint — present on the sheet, unreadable at any magnification]

Sunkist is on this label. Lower right, overlapping the picture frame and the black border, a tissue-wrapped lemon is shown with the word Sunkist printed in script across its wrapper — the California Fruit Growers Exchange mark.

The sheet names no fruit in type. The word LEMON reaches this listing only through the association's own name, FILLMORE LEMON ASSN., and through that wrapped Sunkist fruit. The packer credit itself sits in an orange shield-shaped cartouche set into the left of the picture.

There is no printed date on the sheet. The 1930s dating rests on the trade record and the owner's notes.