Artist: ANONYMOUS
Size: 38 3/4 x 26 3/4 in./98.4 x 68 cm
Condition: B/ Usual aging and wear on tin. Framed.
Printer:
Reference: Ref: America for Sale, front cover; PAI-LVIII, 168
Key Words: food

Campbell’s Soups. ca. 1905.
This embossed tin sign of soup cans arranged to simulate the American flag remains an icon among early American advertising. It is estimated that there are no more than six copies extant. When first produced for in-store displays, there was a furor about the supposed desecration of the flag, and the company immediately recalled and destroyed all of them. “The reasons this sign is held in such high regard are many, and include its extreme rarity, its extraordinary design, the reverence collectors have for the American flag, the prominence and longevity of the Campbell’s soup brand (which continues to this day), and the manner in which the design of the sign foreshadows the Pop Art Movement of the 1960s (which also featured Campbell’s soup cans as well as American flags as important design elements). The tremendous size ... colors, rarity and overall appeal combine to make this one of the very few, and certainly most famous and classic, of all early American advertising items” (from a 2003 auction catalog).