Hi. I hope you can help. I recently purchased an old wooden doll trunk and one of the travel stickers is: Symbol of Superior Service - Frisco Lines - St. Louis-San Francisco RY... It's brown and white and has the "raccoon" outline in the middle of the sticker...Do you have any idea as to what date this could be from? The trunk is very worn, wooden and several stickers - but the Frisco one stands out! Thank you for any help you can share!
Laura, I believe that sticker is from the late 20's to early 30's. I hope Karl Brand or another will chime in with a correction if I am wrong.
Thank you so much!! This is fascinating to date this old trunk. I had a feeling it was the early 30's because there is also a sticker on Lindbergh. Thank you again!
Laura, I see that you are a new member. Welcome to the Frisco website!!! The trunk sounds like a cool item to have. Would you please post photos of it? Joe
BTW, Laura, that "raccoon" outline is called a coonskin by all of us Frisco fans. AND please do post make another post with pictures of that trunk uploaded.
Hi.. Oh gosh, you are right!! Coonskin, my apologies.. Thank you for your interest.. Here are pictures...I included the Lindbergh one too..
No apologies necessary. Thanks for posting the pictures. The Frisco Lines sticker is the oldest one I've seen. I had heard about the color scheme but had not seen one; it predates the printed version I have on a coaster from the early 40's. What is interesting though, is that I have the print block that may have been used to make that sticker.
Can't say I've ever seen a brown Frisco Lines coonskin. The color brings to mind the dark brown/light tan scheme applied to some of the USRA Boxcar rebuilds. Taking that and moseying down Conjecture Street: The old Sunshine Models kit data sheet notes that the boxcars were rebuilt in 1935, 1937 and 1941 "and possibly in some of the intervening years." They further note that the brown/tan scheme was applied "beginning in the late 1930s," which is not exactly precise. The photos in the data sheet use the "Symbol of Superior Service" slogan in a circle, but surrounding the triple-F "Frisco Faster Freight" slogan. Since the luggage sticker still has the "Frisco Lines," it's presumably pre-1947. Assuming that the sticker coincided with the advent of the boxcar scheme, I'd say no earlier than 1935. Hopefully others can narrow down the range. Keith, I'm impressed that the print block has held up for so long without breaking; I probably feel that way after last night's "Hogan's Heroes" where the prisoners had to bust up a counterfeiting scheme operated out of Stalag 13. Col. Hogan and Newkirk were doing a real number breaking up the printing blocks. Best Regards,
If you look closely at that sticker, the colors are purple and yellow, not brown and tan. I looked more closely at the block tonight with high magnification and discovered a tiny remnant of yellow ink on the back side. The block is in very good shape.
Thank you all so much! This is all fascinating to me as this is all new to me and I can see the passion you all have for collecting. Your knowledge is truly outstanding!!!