A Short History of California’s Venerable Sunset Magazine

Dear Clients and Friends,

Hooray! It’s time for Sunset Celebration Weekend June 2-3. This is a show that
makes me just grin from ear to ear. Sunset personifies everything that is great about
being a Northern Californian, and we are pleased as punch to be part of it.

Sunset Magazine is a California treasure. Founded in 1898,
by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the magazine has been in continual publication
ever since, even producing an issue in May 1906 just following the San Francisco
earthquake which wiped out Sunset’s San Francisco offices and printing presses!

The seven acre Sunset campus is bordered by mature shade trees, landscaped
beautifully, and features demonstration gardens which showcase plants, building
materials, and techniques to beautify your garden and home. The Menlo Park
campus was built in 1951 with it’s first buildings designed by famed ranch house
architect Cliff May. It has been used as a headquarters for the magazine, its test
kitchen and its publishing division. The design-minded staff have lovingly improved
and manicured every square inch of the campus since then.

For one magical weekend every year, you can taste wine and beer, enjoy live music
and visit food trucks at the event. Don’t miss the idea house! There are cooking
demos,

Vendors sell plants, raised beds, and home and garden décor
as well as garden tools, hammocks, hats, and don’t forget the most exciting booth -
Vintage European Posters.

Kick off your summer with the toniest street fair on earth. Bring your friends and
neighbors. For children under 12, admission is free.

We hope to see you there.

Proud Californians-

Elizabeth, Charly and Em
Vintage European Posters

If you want to read more about Sunset’s incredibly rich history – famous artists designed covers, Herbert Hoover and Jack London wrote articles, and
readers traded recipes, check out Stanford University’s http://sunset-
magazine.stanford.edu/html/history.html it’s a fascinating read!

The Origin of Advertising

Parisiana Ah! Les Femmes printed circa 1895

Parisiana Mam'zelle Louis V

Our 12th Annual Preview Show this year at Fort Mason will offer a taste of Fin du Siecle Paris, the time into which the poster was born. Why is this time period so interesting? Of course, the costumes were fabulous, but the expanseof the culture was the real news, and the poster was an expression of it.

Because of the the world’s fairs of 1889 and 1900, the blend of world cultures in France was intoxicating.  But what really propelled the culture to express itself so vividly had to do with the birth of the middle class.

 

Moteur Ceres circa 1890

The invention of the gas powered motor was a breakthrough that improved agriculture immeasurably. It allowed farmers to produce a surplus of grain, of grapes, of whatever they grew. Then, there was an immediate need. If you can produce a surplus, how do you sell it? There you have the need for the poster.

 

Once the poster developed markets for products, the merchant class grew.  These people sold goods and consumed media and products previously reserved for the wealthy such as literature, plays and operas, which in turn fueled demand for posters to advertise these pastimes.

Very quickly, posters moved from a smattering to a torrent. The demand for products and experiences increased dramatically, and the marketing of those same things grew as well until in 1900 there were 8 major print house in Paris creating posters around the clock, and printing overruns as well, to meet the demand of the seemingly insatiable poster collecting public.

 

Cendrillon 1899

The collectors were savvy.  The average french collector in 1900 had 1,000+ posters in their cache. Today, I work to find those old colections, in piece or whole.  join us at Fort mason this year, and you will catch the bug….

VEP’s 12th Annual Preview Show features our collection of 1000+ original adverting posters PLUS new aquisitions from our buying trip to France.  August 19-22, 2010 Friday and Saturday from 10-6, Sunday from 11-5

Fort Mason Center is located at the Corner of Marina and Buchanan Streets in San Francisco.

The show is sponsored by Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine http://www.wineaccess.com/expert/connoisseurs/index.html
http://www.fortmason.org/events/events-details?id=1422&start=2010-08-20&end=2010-08-22

 

A California Wine Land in Posters

Sherry, printed circa 1965

Can you imagine a time before people associated California with fine wine? As Californians when we travel around the US and abroad we meet people who speak wistfully to us of Napa and Santa Barbara, places  they may have visited, but also places they have come to love in ABC’s ‘Brothers and Sisters,’ in the smash hit film “Sideways” and through Michael Chiarello’s lifestyle store and catlaogue “Napa Style.”

But the golden state hasn’t always been known for it’s wine.  As a child I remember the ad campaign for California raisins but my folks chose to drink wines from France and Italy.  What changed California’s image from the land of the sweet grape and the jug wine to producer of top varietals? You may cite the famous blind taste test of 1976 in which California wines beat French wines and you would be partly correct, but another factor, ten years earlier was the creation of the  “California Wine Advisory  Board”.

Wines from California, printed c. 1965

This agency’s goal was to increase the profile and visibility of California Wines, so they launched a very successful marketing campaign which included a cook book “Epicurean Recipes of California Wine Makers” (Edited by David R. Wilcox) in 1969.  The Book includes recipes such as ‘Tuna Rarebit’- evaporated milk, canned tomato soup, california sherry, canned tuna and crisp bacon ; as well as such wine soaked favorites as ‘Smothered Dove’. The cookbook was a huge success, and was reprinted more than 18 times.

The Wine Advisory Board created small pamphlets about wine and food pairing, and then, in an inspired move, they hired Mexican born artist Amado Gonzalez (1913-2007) to create a series of

Grape Growing Regions of California, printed c. 1965

posters which were distributed all over the country called “California Wine Land” each poster featured a different wine or vineyard scene.  Gonzales, who taught at San Francosco’s City college for 28 years, already enjoyed some fame as an illustrator and a painter.

Having achieved their imperative, the board closed it’s doors in 1971, leaving behind the legacy of a cookbook, which seems dated today, and the posters, whose designs seem surprisingly fresh 45 years later.

The “Wine Land of America” Series of original advertising posters are available from Vintage European Posters, an Oakland, California based Antiques Dealer http://www.vepca.com

You can see Vintage European Posters ENTIRE collection of advertising posters from Europe and the United States at this weekend’s Healdsburg

California Champagne, printed circa 1965

 Antiques on the Plaza Show, Sunday, May 30th from 9 am til 4 pm.  To reach Healdsburg Town Square, exit Central Healdsburg from Highway 101.