Thursday, December 13, 2018

Ah, Rubber Cement

Here's another one that could have been in that aisle of old art supplies: rubber cement.


I think the makers may have converted parts of the label design from hand-lettering to type some time after the 1970s (the decade in which this can was made), plus that DANGER warning looks contemporaneous. But the baseline-bowing WHITE RUBBER bug and the arced NO CURLING promise, plus the orange, black, and white overall design hearken back to the early 20th century, I'd say.

And don't forget, it has the wondrous brush in cap:


Huh, the top of the can says "brush in can" while the label says "brush-in-cap." I never noticed that before.

Either way, I can almost see that shiny top with its raised letters as an Andy Warhol painting.

2 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

I love the vanishing “Shrinking.” The false note for me is “A Real ACID FREE Adhesive,” which looks tacky (no pun intended) next to the beautiful lettering above and below.

Daughter Number Three said...

Yes, I think that and the line PAPER CEMENT (both in Cooper Black type, rather than lettering) were added in the 1970s.