Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Seed Catalogs of Yore

I read about these old seed catalogs in Marcine's blog, A Clock Without Hands. Marcine spent one Sunday evening browsing through the Smithsonian Library Seed Catalog and these are some of her favorites. I think they would make great postcards and posters. I'm astounded at the high quality of design for these rather mundane items -- illustrations in seed catalogs! Aren't they startlingly beautiful?

You can find more of Marcine's ephemera favorites on Flickr.














19 comments:

Nora the Explorer said...

these are pretty! thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

Wow. Those are beautiful. I am impressed.

Cassie said...

Very pretty. :)

Jill of All Trades said...

Love these. A few years ago Burpee's catalog had some reprints of old ones that I loved and had framed for my kitchen. In fact the colors were the basis of two kitchens.

Lindsey Michelle said...

Those are gorgeous!

{ Lindsey }
http://greatfullday.blogspot.com

TheBeautyFile said...

Beautiful prints! I absolutely love these!

Simply Mel {Reverie} said...

It makes me so happy when a seed catalog felt the necessity to use such exquisite pieces of art!

Unknown said...

this is such a pretty post - i love it!! great job!!!
xox

kim said...

i have some beautiful seed packets which were sent from sweden. i can't part with them. thanks for reminding me I need to take a better look at them.

BALLET NEWS said...

Wow these are amazing - thank you so much for sharing !

Yvonne Anderson said...

Me like!

Joyti said...

O how pretty those are....

Heini said...

Oh, how adorable are these!

carolina @ patagonia gifts said...

these are so lovely! I'm in love with the last one, a jasmine I think? thanks so much for your sweet wishes! xo

dee said...

They would be so pretty hanging in a bathroom or boudoir, wouldn't they?!

Erin Helgerson said...

I love vintage seeds! Wouldn't those be pretty framed in a series in your kitchen? So exquisite! Thanks for sharing! XO!

Tina Tarnoff said...

I would love to have these framed on my wall, they are amazing. THey remind me of Cafe Cartolina cards (here is the link to her blog http://cafecartolina.blogspot.com/, she's amazing!)

Amy said...

The illustrations are just lovely. I love vintage packaging. It's amazing how much they used to put into making ordinary products look beautiful.

Anonymous said...

So beautiful!! Makes me want to grow flowers! :)