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Sperry Flour Company

Poster
ca. 1902 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Sperry Flour Company was one of the giants of the American milling industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before being consolidated as part of General Mills - a major American manufacturer still in existence today. Based in San Jose, California, David Moody started the Sperry Flour Company in 1892 on the site of an existing flour mill built in 1854. This poster is an example of the company's marketing to overseas consumers. The poster is a hybrid image borrowing stylistic elements from both Japanese woodblock prints and American trade cards.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSperry Flour Company (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph
Brief description
Japanese language poster advertising four flour products made by Sperry Flour Company. Traditional landscape scene, house, people. ca. 1903.
Physical description
Poster advertising Sperry Flour goods (American). Japanese landscape scene with waterfall, cherry blossoms, samurai and other Japanese figures. Japanese cherubs in each corner or upper margin flanking four flour sacks. American flag, left. Yellow flag with sun and dragon, right. English and Japanese text.
Dimensions
  • Height: 75.9cm
  • Width: 49.8cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Sperry Flour Company
  • Sperry's Mills Baker's Flour
  • Pioneer Mills Patent Roller Flour
  • Buckeye Mills Patent Roller Extra Family Flour
  • Union Mills Extra Bakers Flour
  • 101 (label written in black marker pen on card (linen backed poster))
  • "Box of Curios" Printers, Yokohama
Credit line
Gift of the American Friends of the V&A; Gift to the American Friends by Leslie, Judith and Gabri Schreyer and Alice Schreyer Batko
Subjects depicted
Places depicted
Summary
The Sperry Flour Company was one of the giants of the American milling industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before being consolidated as part of General Mills - a major American manufacturer still in existence today. Based in San Jose, California, David Moody started the Sperry Flour Company in 1892 on the site of an existing flour mill built in 1854. This poster is an example of the company's marketing to overseas consumers. The poster is a hybrid image borrowing stylistic elements from both Japanese woodblock prints and American trade cards.
Other number
LS.1746 - Leslie Schreyer Loan Number
Collection
Accession number
E.703-2004

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Record createdSeptember 30, 2004
Record URL
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