Orange paper
An orange paper is usually thin, printed with colorful motifs paper , into the oranges offered wrapped for sale. It has lost its original protective function, nowadays it is used for advertising purposes and as a collector's item.
Since oranges, in contrast to other fruits such as bananas, stop their ripening process immediately after harvesting, it was and is essential to harvest them when fully ripe and to transport them quickly. The rapid transport from the Mediterranean cultivation areas to distant countries only became possible with the advent of the railroad and express steamers . In order to protect the fruit, which is sensitive due to the ripeness, from bumps, moisture and transport damage and to prevent any mold from spreading from one orange to the next, the fruits were wrapped in orange paper, which was registered for patent in 1878. Since this was originally the only purpose of orange paper, it was initially unprinted, but it was soon discovered as a carrier for advertising. The protective function of the orange paper has largely been lost due to automated processes, aircraft, gentler transport and cooling devices of all kinds that have become possible as well as the chemical surface treatment of the fruit.
While you mostly found drawings and slogans on early orange paper with which the owners of the orange plantations in Italy and Spain, often run as a family business at the time, advertised their fruit, with the invention of two-, three- and four-color printing and later offset printing, the motifs and texts are extreme become manifold. There are orange papers with pictures of, for example, Struwwelpeter , Odysseus , Mickey Mouse and the like; Pictorial representations from fairy tales, myths and legends can be found as well as portraits of politicians and athletes, animal and flower motifs or simply ornaments .
The images on orange paper also often had a reference to current events, inventions or trends at the time. For example, the development of the telephone and the zeppelin were immortalized on orange paper, as was the Vespa later . The representations were partly adapted to the target country of the oranges. For oranges that were exported to Great Britain, papers were designed with Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes motifs , papers for Germany showed Little Red Riding Hood , Martin Luther or Max and Moritz , among many other things, and oranges with the likeness were exported to the USA George Washington . Orange papers illustrate the history of advertising on the one hand, and the time and circumstances from which they originate on the other. The Spanish papers lost their craftsmanship at the end of the 1930s, as many of the graphic artists were Republicans and went into exile after Franco's victory . This rich history and the variety of illustrations have made orange paper into collector's items, and museums have even been set up.
literature
- Dirik von Oettingen: Wrapped up to seduce. The world on the orange . vacat publishing house. Potsdam. 2007. ISBN 978-3-930752-47-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c dradio.de Veiled to seduce. The history of orange paper. By Antje Rávic Strubel
- ↑ a b Opium - The Orange Paper Museum , see under 02. Why orange paper?
- ↑ Pacifico graphic
- ↑ orangenpapiersammler.de