Printing plates

[ChrisBlox]

Found these in our back yard. All separate digs, but in the same general area of the yard. They're 2 inches by 2 inches and pretty beat up. I'm wondering if they're unique to my town (founded in the early 1700s) or if they're mass produced. One is obviously an ad and says "cool as a cucumber" and has what I'm assuming is a pickle. I'm delighted by them and would love to know more.

 

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[WheatWaffle]

Nice finds!

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

Nice finds, in the last few months I have seen a couple of printing plates show up on todays finds, a few were picture plates of unknown guys, I wonder if printing plates are a rare find, or just not posted here much.

 

[ChrisBlox]

Thanks! I wondered how rare of a find they were. I looked for a designated forum to post them in, but I didn't see one. If there's a better place to post to get more info, just let me know.

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

There is a What Is It forum here also. I did a quick google search and a company know sells a cucumber cream with the cool as a cucumber phrase in it, the company is old here is a history link to it. The company is Thayer.


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[Qball]

These might be for chocolate molds.

 

[ChrisBlox]

Interesting about Thayers. I'll do some digging and see if I can find any old ads. I've tried finding a pickle company that used the slogan, but haven't had much luck, which made me wonder if it was local. They strike me as print ad plates. Another one is a box with "ordinary" on it and then a box with a bow with the slogan "there's a difference." Although chocolate would be interesting!

 

[bootybandit]

Interesting finds! Have you researched the history of your property?

 

[ChrisBlox]

Yes - I've done tons of research, including the old fire insurance maps. The town was founded in the early 1700s and was a well-known Native American trading post for eons before it's "official white founding." The land itself is not far off of what was the main river downtown where the steamboats used to dock. The history is so rich it's just ridiculous. There is extensive documentation of Civil War battles being fought in the neighborhood and first-hand notes about soldiers camping out on the land. It's been a while since I've done research on the newspapers and I'm about to launch back into that. But I vaguely remember a story about a battle and the local printing press being destroyed. I'm digging what appears to be a trash heap/burn pile. I'm finding bottles (mostly broken, but they still make me happy), ceramic pieces galore, horseshoes, axes, the wheels and frame of a tricycle, tons of burned iron "junk" ... But these plates are the best thing so far. I'm very, very excited to slowly sift through everything.

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[Curious The George]

If the story about the printing press is true and the CW camps it might be that soldiers took the lead from the print shop and used to make bullets. However finding them in a large dump site might kill that idea. And if they are not pure lead they wouldn't be very useful for bullets, if they are zinc or a tin alloy.

 

[Curious The George]

One other thing you might do try. If you have a local library that has old newspaper files, go through them during the time period that the bottles in the dump indicate the age of the dump. You just might find printed ads that incorporate your plates.

 

[ChrisBlox]

Found another one!! I looked at the digitized newspaper archives. No dice yet.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

You are going to have quite the collection of these..i think they are awesome. Hope you can find t what they went too