Crate Label, Mt Shasta California Pears, Original Lithograph, NOS, Vintage

Before supermarkets. Before plastic wrap. Before everything was the same everywhere — there were crate labels.

This is an original California pear crate label — a 1940s lithograph from the factory stock of James Mills Growers, Hamilton City, California. It has never been used. Never folded. Never attached to a crate. It is New Old Stock in excellent mint condition.

The label is beautiful in its restraint. Mount Shasta rises from a simple, clean composition — white and snow-covered against a yellow sky, surrounded by dark pines and green foothills. The palette is spare: yellow, blue, white, green. Nothing extra. The mountain does all the work, and it is more than sufficient. The label's designers understood that Mount Shasta needed no embellishment — only framing.

Mount Shasta is one of North America's most storied mountains: a stratovolcano rising to 14,179 feet in northern California, visible from over 140 miles away on a clear day. It is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as an eligible Native American cultural and cosmological property, with evidence of human habitation stretching back at least 11,000 years. It last erupted in 1786. It is, in every sense, a mountain with weight — and this label carries that weight quietly. One available.

Frame it as California landscape art, as a piece of Northern California history, or as something for a wall that rewards a second look. At 11.0 by 7.5 inches it fits a standard 11x14 or 12x16 frame and suits any interior that appreciates understated natural beauty.

A wonderful gift for a Northern California native, a Mount Shasta enthusiast, a lover of clean mid-century landscape design, or a vintage label collector who understands that restraint is its own kind of excellence.

A note on crate label collecting: Original lithographic crate labels from this era are increasingly scarce. NOS examples like this one — never used, never folded, in original unused condition — represent the best of what survives. Collectors prize them for their graphic quality and the window they open onto a vanished chapter of American agricultural and commercial history.

• Brand: Mt Shasta Brand / James Mills Growers, Hamilton City, California
• Type: Pear crate label
• Made in: USA
• Dated: circa 1940s
• Dimensions: 11.0" wide | 7.5" tall
• Condition: New Old Stock (NOS) — unused, excellent mint condition. Age-appropriate yellowing consistent with period. Please review all photos carefully — we cannot accept returns.
• Framing: Fits a standard 11x14 or 12x16 frame — ready to display