There is something about old paper that has always drawn me in.
Perhaps it is the faded color, the beautiful typography, or the little signs of age that remind us that a piece of paper has somehow survived while the world around it changed.
And sometimes, it is simply the surprise of discovering beautiful artwork in a place where no one really expected it to last.
Recently I came across a collection of original vintage and antique fruit crate and can labels. I began looking through them thinking I might choose just a few for Butterfly In The Attic.
That didn't quite happen.
I found butterflies and birds, fruit and flowers, old locomotives, California citrus groves, mountain landscapes—and even a mischievous apple dressed as a cowboy.
The more I looked, the more I realized these weren't simply old advertisements. They were tiny pieces of art.
A Butterfly From the 1890s
Of course, one particular label immediately caught my attention.
An original 1890s Butterfly Brand Boston Marrow Squash can label features a large butterfly surrounded by wonderfully ornate Victorian lettering and decoration.
How could something called Butterfly Brand possibly stay out of Butterfly In The Attic?
But beyond the name, I love that something created to wrap an ordinary can of vegetables more than a century ago can still be appreciated for its artwork today.
Someone designed that butterfly. Someone chose those colors and letters. Somewhere, long ago, that label was meant to catch a shopper's eye on a store shelf.
And somehow, this one survived.
Defy The World
Then there was the name I couldn't resist: Defy The World Tomatoes.
The original label dates to approximately the 1910s–1920s and features an enormous red tomato surrounded by elaborate lettering and a detailed farmhouse landscape.
I love the confidence of it.
Not merely Good Tomatoes. Not Excellent Tomatoes.
Defy The World.
There is something wonderfully optimistic about advertising from this period. Even a humble can of tomatoes could apparently take on the world.
An Apple With a Cowboy Hat
Not every old treasure needs to be serious.
One of my favorites is a 1950s Sky Ranch Apples crate label from Yakima, Washington.
Its star is a bright red apple dressed as a cowboy, complete with hat, boots and lasso.
It is funny, colorful and unmistakably mid-century.
It also has that wonderful sense of nostalgia I look for when choosing things for the shop—the feeling that you've opened an old drawer or box and discovered something you haven't seen since childhood.
Those are often my favorite finds.
California in a Piece of Paper
Some of the labels feel almost like miniature travel posters.
The 1930s Evening Star lemon crate label is one of them.
A tall palm rises over neat rows of citrus trees, with mountains in the distance and a mission-style building tucked into the landscape. The evening sky glows behind it all.
As someone who has spent so much of my life in California, I find these old agricultural labels especially fascinating.
They capture a particular vision of California—sunshine, orchards, mountains, abundance and possibility—and they preserve a little piece of the agricultural history that shaped so many communities here.
Old Paper for New Stories
What excites me most about these labels is that their stories don't necessarily have to end in a frame or collector's drawer.
For those of us who make junk journals, altered books, collage and mixed-media art, an original piece of vintage paper can become part of something new.
A large crate label might become the cover of a journal. A long can label could wrap around a handmade book, become a pocket or foldout, or be incorporated into a collage.
And because these are original vintage and antique pieces rather than reproductions, they bring something to a project that simply can't be printed from a computer: genuine age and history.
Of course, I also understand the temptation not to cut them at all.
Some treasures deserve a little time before we decide what they want to become.
Welcome to Old Paper Treasures
I've gathered my favorites into a new collection at Butterfly In The Attic called Old Paper Treasures.
I didn't want hundreds of labels simply because they were available. I chose the ones that made me stop and look—the animals, unusual characters, beautiful landscapes, wonderful typography and little pieces of history that felt as though they belonged here.
They are treasures for collectors, certainly. But I hope they'll also find their way into the hands of artists and journal makers who will give some of this old paper another chapter.
After all, that may be the loveliest thing about an old piece of paper.
Its first story has already been written. What happens to it next is up to us.
What else will you find in the Hidden Drawer?
