1900-1920’s General Store Bulk Tin Coffee Bins
Antique advertising for coffee collectibles and tea relics are highly prized. Some of the most popular types of coffee collectibles are antique coffee grinders and mills, percolators and pots, and large general store coffee storage bins with scoops. Other important memorabilia are coffee cans, mugs and cups, signs and tins. Significant brands were Fat Boy, Chase & Sanborn and Luzianne and regional brands such as C.F. Blanke’s Coffee & Spice. In general, the coffee products advertised the company’s name and logo designs.
1910-1920’s C.F. Blanke Coffee Storage Bin, Coffee Tin and Stoneware Coffee Pots
Storage Bins – Large coffee storage bins displayed in general stores were over two feet wide and two feet tall and held up to 75 pounds of coffee.
Coffee Tins – Coffee tins were used to package the coffee and considered a way to keep the coffee clean in comparison to food offered in bins or barrels when people would use their hands sometimes to scoop it out.
Coffee, Tea & Spice Tin Collectibles 1880-1920’s
Coffee Pots – The coffee pots, percolators, storage bins and tins were designed to display a company’s brand on the side of their containers. In the early 1900’s, coffee pots were made of tin, aluminum or enamel and were created to boil water or brew coffee.
Percolators – The first percolators were made out of aluminum or metal and placed on the top of a stove then forced water to come up through a tube to run over coffee grounds.
1875-1900 Elgin National Countertop Coffee Grinder
Many collectors are interested in coffee grinders from the 1800’s that were used in the general stores to help break down coffee beans into a more usable form. The coffee grinders were box-types, large floor standing models, wall-mounted or counter-mounted.
Typically, the grinders had a brass bowl with a single or double wheel and a crank to grind the beans into a drawer beneath it. Most were box-shaped but rare ones were round. The company had their logo or unique designs on the sides or top to differentiate their brand.
Elgin National – One well-known brand, Elgin National, featured a brass eagle finial on the top and an eagle with shield decals on the sides. Elgin National is a high demand brand for coffee collectibles.
Here is a nice tin sign featuring the Hanley Kinsella Company Shield brand of coffee and an image of their coffee can featured prominently on the sign. The H-K brand can be commonly found on many spice tins, as that was their main product line I suspect, but the coffee bins and tins are found…
Here is a very nice tin old general store coffee bin from the Closset and Devers Company which was based in Portland, Oregon around the early 1900′ era. Coffee bins like this were used by hundreds of people each work to pull out bulk coffee beans, so finding them in pristine condition is very tough…
This tin coffee can is very colorful and pretty cool. How many coffee cans have you seen with baby chickens on them? It’s a rare design for sure, and the color was certainly an eye catcher. This can is from the 1920-30s era, and is from an Oklahoma based company.
Here is a beautiful advertising tin from the C. F. Blanke Coffee and Tea Company based in St. Louis, MO. This tin simply showed the pride that the company and the residents had for the United States shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish American war, and with the troubles brewing in Europe before WW1…
Here is a very pretty bright orange tin store bin from the Banke Coffee Company which was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin years ago. This metal bin is from the 1900-1910 era.
Here is a beautiful old antique tin from the Chase and Sanborn Company for their Imitation Tea brand. This large coffee and tea company has remained in business for well over 100 years and continues to be a larger seller in the spice and drink marketplace. This tin encompasses an eye catching red and gold…
Here is a beautiful and very colorful general store era coffee bin from the long defunct Closset and Devers Mercantile Company out of Portland, Oregon. This particular bin was used in an old store most likely within 100 miles or so from Portland and allowed a long ago merchant to have his customers pull out…
Here is a beautiful tin spice bin from the Morey Mills Coffee Company which was based in Denver, Colorado in the early 1900’s when this bin was made. This particular bin would have been placed in a smaller general store where customers would scoop out the amount of spices they wanted when making their purchase.…
Here is a beautiful stoneware or pottery like coffee pot advertising the Meyer Brothers flagship brand of coffee, the Wide Awake Owl Brand. Typically the company used an owl as their logo on most of their advertising with large wide awake looking eyes! However, this particular fine china style coffee pot simply added their company…
This is a very colorful tin general store counter coffee bin from the Ridenour Bakery Company in Kansas City, Missouri. This bin held 50 pounds of bulk coffee, and was designed to allow consumers to simply scoop out the amount of coffee they needed each time. The Arabia’s Chief brand always featured an Arabic man…
