Ojibwa Indian Tobacco Progressive Label & Proofs

The Lithography Printing Process IllustratedSurprises are common in the world of antique printing. The companies were numerous, their products diverse, and their work broad ranging, with subject matter covering all aspects of social history, from native culture to futurism. So, when I found this progressive label for a large tobacco crate, produced by Calvert Litho Company of Detroit, a new aspect of the printing business came into view. To start with, Calvert Litho Company was one of the largest and most venerable of the giant printing firms across North America in the latter half of the 19th Century. Thomas Calvert started out in Yorkshire, England, but after a move to the United States and bouncing around with a number of jobs, Calvert learned the lithographic trade in Buffalo, New York in the early 1860s, and by 1863 had moved to Detroit and enlisted a partner to start a firm there. Calvert’s name appeared in the company title from 1864 all the way to it’s ultimate demise in 1967. The work of Calvert was always top notch.The progressive label or progressive proof is a tool of the printer to allow complete information on the various stages of the color work. Each color requires a separate litho stone for full color work to succeed, the limestone slabs used for one color only. Sample sheets are pulled from each stone, checking the color saturation and image, so that a progressive will show the layers of color laid on the paper from the stones in sequence, finally producing a full color image, as desired.The progressive label “book” would be kept on file for future reference, if more of the same print were ordered. What is truly unusual about the Ojibwa label sequence is its size. I never knew progressives were made for pieces so large, and even tobacco experts have been surprised by the 13” x 16” size, which has then led me to further speculation. Most of these same printers produced large advertising posters, like the Barnum & Bailey circus posters everyone is familiar with. If labels as large as this one exist, there might have been progressive proofs for the posters, too. Imagine a series of four foot by three foot folder of proofs, stored in the back rooms of the printing plant. The space required must have been huge, just as with the storage of the stones. The litho companies did a good job of keeping records of the work they created. Unfortunately historians have not done as good a job with preserving their work.That is now a job for you and me.