Collector Alert: Coffee tin collectors know the difficulty of finding tins with original lids. Many valuable tins are found without them which greatly reduces their selling prices. Now it is learned that acouple of unscrupulous individuals are painting lids to closely match the tin body. This is not the everyday touch-up, but a deliberate attempt to deceive the collector.
If you’re buying more expensive tins, carefully examine the lid for anyindication that it may have been altered. It’s not known to what length the alteration is going to, i.e. they may scuff, dirty, scratch their new paint finish to look more convincing.
cof*fee (noun): often attributive; [Italian & Turkish; Italian caffe, from Turkish kahve, from Arabic qahwa]; First appeared 1598. A beverage made by percolation, infusion, or decoction from the roasted andground seeds of a coffee plant.
Turkish Proverb
“Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love.”
About Coffee
The coffee tree is first thought to be discovered (before 1,000 A.D.) by the Ethiopian tribe, the Galla, who found extraenergy by eating the ground berries with animal fat. The tree is native to Ethiopia andwas later carried by Arab traders, around 1,000 A.D., back to their countries where it wasfirst cultivated. There the beans are boiled and crushed in a syrupy drink called”gahua”. It was said that monks began to eat the berries to help keep themselvesawake through long nights of prayer.
Circa 1300 A.D. coffee started to resemblethe beverage of today – a watery extraction from boiling the roasted beans.
Around 1453 A.D., the Ottoman Turks bringcoffee to Constantinople, the home of the world’s first coffee shop, called Kiva Han, in1475. Interesting is the Turkish law that allowed a woman to divorce her husband if hefailed to provide her with a daily ration of coffee.
Until the 17th century all of the coffeetrade came from Arabia, then slowly, through the efforts of Dutch traders, the cultivationof coffee trees spread to the East Indies. Later it was carried from France to the WestIndies spreading to South America with Brazil growing it in 1729.
Despite coffee’s origins in Ethiopia,Africa didn’t become a major coffee producer until after World War II.
In our country, soldiers were servedcoffee bean rations during the Civil War. From their wartime experiences, these soldier’srequests for coffee, after the war ended, pushed the development of the coffee industry.
In 1878, Chase & Sanborn became thefirst company to pack and seal roasted coffee in one and two pound tins. This was done topreserve the coffee’s flavor and prolong its shelf life. The coffee was soldunder the brand names “Chase & Sanborn Seal Brand” and “CrusadeCoffee”.
Edwin Norton received a patent for amachine that would package foods by a vacuum process in 1898. Hills Brothers quickly putNorton’s idea to use, realizing that coffee packed in such a manner would retain itsfreshness much longer. They became the first company in 1903 to vacuum-pack their coffeeproducts. Later the David G. Evans Coffee Company, St. Louis, MO., beganselling some of its brands in vacuum-sealed glass jars.
Coffee manufacturers and distributors soonfound that they could sell their products in much greater quantities if the coffee waspackaged in ornate tins or canisters. The more elaborate and colorful they were, the morethe customer bought. The customer many times used the empty tins for other purposes, suchas a canister set for storing flour and sugar in the kitchen. For the house wife tocomplete a matching set, she had to buy more coffee.
After the Pure Food & Drugs Act in1906, much of the improper or misleading advertising that was occurring in the coffeeindustry, as well as others, was eliminated. Such words as “JAVA” and”MOCHA” saw a decline in usage.
GO-WITHS
Before coffee tins came along and after theirdevelopment, many other advertising items were used by manufacturers and distributors tohelp market their products. Such pieces could be grinders, mills, cardboard andporcelain signs, cloth and paper bags/sacks, wooden boxes/crates, larger store bins,measuring spoons/scoops, coffee cups and mugs, serving trays, trade cards, andmagazine/newspaper ads.
The collector can even accumulate things likecoffee makers, coffee bean roasters, vending machines, and the newer espresso/ cappuccino machines. How about radio and television commercials?
Coffee Tins
by John H. LoBosco
I started collecting antique advertising memorabilia about seven years ago. At that time I had no idea that the few items I wasabout to purchase would get me so deeply involved in something that has since become a passion – collecting old coffee containers and other coffee related memorabilia.
When I began collecting I worked for the Nestle Company. In looking for some old Nestle advertising pieces to display in my office,I found a few coffee tins and some neat cardboard advertising signs. From that point onthere was no turning back. I began going to all of the local antique shows, flea markets,yard sales, and auctions. At first I collected only Nestle advertising and thenbroadened my horizons to all types of antique advertising memorabilia, including tin andcardboard containers and signs, as well as paper advertising. I bought anything that Icould afford (as well as things that I couldn’t afford).
In addition to my office, I began displaying tins in my kitchen. I quickly ran out of room and from the kitchen the collection progressed to the attic until someone alerted me to the potential damage thatthe extreme attic temperature swings could inflict on older tins. So out of the attic and into closets they went. Fortunately I now have a home with a very large basement where Ican display and enjoy my entire collection, which now consists of approximately 500 tins, 400 of which are coffee tins.
In the last year or two I began to focus primarily on coffee memorabilia. My main interest now is the multicolored, lithographed,one pound “Tall Coffee Tin” produced from the early 1900’s through the early1930’s.
Today coffee tins are highly collectible.In fact, they have become one of the most sought after types of antiques advertising collectibles, second only to tobacco tins. Although we call them tins, these containerswere not made entirely of tin but were originally made from tinplated sheets of iron.Later the iron was replaced by steel. It is estimated that around two thousand differentexamples of coffee tins were produced over the years, with countless millions sold.However, despite the large number of tins manufactured, only a very small percentage havesurvived. Of those that did, many of the more desirable ones have become almost impossibleto find due to the many collectors competing for them. This scarcity and popularity hascaused prices to soar dramatically in recent years. For example, I now sometimes payseveral hundred dollars for coffee tins that cost less than fifty dollars when I startedcollecting.
By way of background, companies beganselling coffee in tin containers as long ago as the early 1800’s, when most people boughtfresh green coffee beans and did their own roasting and grinding at home. Packaged roastedcoffee did not become popular until the late 1880’s.
Over the years, coffee containers wereproduced in many shapes and sizes. One could buy coffee in boxes and pails with metalhandles. Containers were square, cylindrical, rectangular, and trapezoid shaped. They alsocame in many different sizes, from one ounce sample tins to large binsholding more than fifty pounds of coffee. In addition to tinplate, some containers weremade of cardboard and some had paper labels over tin. A variety of lids were also used.The earlier tins had lids with hinges or lids that could be pulled off. Later tins weremade with pry lids, slip lids, and lids that could be screwed on and off. Finally, keyswere used to remove the lids.
Graphics and colors evolved from plainearly tins that sometimes had paper or stenciled labels to tins produced using a twocolored tintype process. Here, black was usually the dominant color and was used withgreen, red, blue or yellow. By 1914, a new technology called chromolithography allowed forthe mass production of magnificent multi-colored tins with stunning graphics. Today manyof these tins are considered works of art, some having great historical significance.
As coffee companies experimented withdifferent ways of attracting customers, they realized that they could sell more coffee byproducing reusable tin containers with beautiful graphics. In fact, the more lavish andmagnificent the tin, the more coffee would be sold. Not only was this a very inexpensiveform of advertising, but it also increased the likelihood that the tin would be saved andreused for some other purpose. Tins were often reused for storing any number of householditems, such as nails, buttons or even some other food product. These tins also madewonderful display pieces. This helps to explain why some tins survived for generations toultimately end up in somebody’s collection.
Lucky for collectors like myself, tins canstill be found at the many shows and auctions held all overt he country.Occasionally Iuncover a great find at a flea market but lately this is becoming a rare occurrence.Antiques and collectibles shows are still a good venue for finding tins. However, a reallyterrific place to find coffee tins and other high quality antique advertising is theIndianapolis Antique Advertising Show. This is a national show with a twenty five yeartrack record, held three times a year at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It’s one of myfavorite shows with more than one hundred dealers coming from 38 states selling rare,quality advertising memorabilia. For more information I suggest you contact the promoter,Kim Kokles at (214) 240-1987.
Another great place to find wonderful tinsis the annual convention of the Antique Advertising Association of America (A.A.A.A.).They publish an outstanding newsletter and are always happy to welcome new members. Theannual conventions are held in different cities around the country giving members anopportunity to share their knowledge and buy, sell or trade their treasures with eachother. Some really great prices are always available. For membership, write to AAAA, P.O.Box 1121, Morton Grove, IL., 60053.
The value of a particular tin iscontingent upon many elements and can vary greatly. Rarity, age, and condition are themost important. A collector can pay anywhere from less than a dollar to many thousands ofdollars for a tin. A very rare, old tin, in mint or near mint condition can fetchthousands, while the same tin in poor condition may only be worth a few dollars. AlthoughI may occasionally buy a tin in questionable condition to introduce something new into mycollection, I’d rather stick to quality. The more elaborate lithographed one pound”Tall Coffee Tins: range in price from $150 to more than $1,000, while those withplain lettering will generally sell from $75 to $150. Keywinds ca still be found for under$25 but the ones with really great graphics can easily fetch more than $100.
In grading tins, I use a numbered gradingsystem that many other collectors have adopted, with grades running from 1 – 10 (10 -mint, 9.5 – near mint, 9 – outstanding, 8.5 – excellent plus… 6 – poor, etc.). Igenerally will not buy anything less than an 8. A grade 8 is excellent and the tin shouldbe free from dents, fading, or rust. I would not recommend anything below an 8, forcollectors who intend to someday resell the tin.
There are many price guides availablewhich may be useful for new collectors but, since prices are constantly changing, I onlyuse them to get a general idea of value.
Who would have guessed a hundred years agothat some of these tins would be worth their weight in gold today? I wonder what we arenow throwing in the trash that someday may sit on our grandchildren’s shelves as prizedand valuable treasures.
I worked for this company in the restaurant division from 1965 until in1973-1974 when the Canadian company of Stuarts Branded Foods, dba “WeschlerFoods” & “Goodhost Foods” bought out the restaurantdivision I was a part of. Crescent Foods (as it was called) was asI was told, the original coffee roaster on the U.S. west coast in SeattleWashington. This was closed when the Canadian company took it over. There was a very large vault in the basement that had many historicalartifacts that would be priceless today. A Marshall Weiss(sp?) was the coffee blender. He was a verylarge man and his blending was done over a very large round marble table thatwas like a lazy-susan. A coffee pot of hot water was in the middle. Also in the middle were containers of various coffee beans, some ground, someto be ground with a pistil(?). The outside edge of the table was linedwith heavy-based 4oz clear glasses for tasting. Below the table was abrass spittoon(?) Crescent’s corporate office and spice production was on Dearborn Streetand coffee and nut roasting was done on 1st Avenue. A 3rd location fordistribution was done in the mid 70’s. I’m told Schilling Spiceshas since taken over the company. R. McLaughline-mail: rd4y2k@hotmail.com p.s. I still have 8 of those 4oz coffee tasting glasses but have noidea of their value.