Loafing Around

Well campers, I have finally added an old piece, long sought, to the permanent collection here at the Main Topps Archives Research Complex.  Those of you whose memories are less permeable than mine will certainly recall a post last year discussing a stamp version of 1949 Topps X-Ray Roundup cards.  Aunt Hannah's was a subsidiary of Baur's Bread that had a history of premium offers in what must have been an ultra-competitive marketplace for enriched white bread after World War 2. Time frame-wise, they issued the stamp premiums replicating the Topps card set of 200 subjects around 1950 I would estimate.

The stamps are found pretty easily but the album pages they were to be affixed to are a more difficult quarry. I had previously assumed these pages were made of paper but they are actually thin cardboard, about the same thickness as a 1980's Topps card.  This one has the stamps affixed and you can see they were designed to display 25 at a time:

Some of the stamps are still connected to each other; sheets are known with all 25 stamps still "unburst".  I have seen the 25 stamp quadrants (they came from either a 100 or 200 stamp sheet) but don't have one of my own to show.  They look really cool as one piece though and I want to picture one so here is an example that (I think) came from Todd Riley:

Looks like a bite was taken out of the bottom to allow a full sheet of 25 to be held in place without sticking them.  Here is the back of the page and you can see where the little half moon could be pushed out at the bottom (under "Loaf"):

With all due respect to Aunt Hannah, "meh".  I want to focus though, on a small feature, namely two punchholes, best seen on the front in the detail:

You can see two little unpunched holes t left of rows 1 and 4, which clearly relate to an album.  I have not, as of today, been able to spy an album anywhere but intend to keep looking.  Robert Edward Auctions had a sheet of 100 stamps up for bid not too long ago:

REA also had a proof block of ten, possibly cards and not stamps but still a neat item:

Aunt Hannah certainly had a nice "in" with Topps, didn't they?

Food Stamps

Many collectors are familiar with the 1949 X-Ray Roundup issue from Topps.  These small, tab-sized cards featured 200 subjects divided unequally between Indians, Savage Tribesmen, Wild West Figures, Pirates and Screen Stars who had appeared in Westerns.  Not too many though, are familar with a premium from a bread company called Aunt Hannah's, which featured stamp versions of X-Ray Roundup, replete with an album page that held 25 stamps.  I am working on better scans but right now here is a shot of one of these hybrids:

You can't really make it out but there are holes on the left side so the page could be inserted into an album, hence the title/instructions at the top.  The bottom tag line is interesting "Save ;Em, Trade Em" was a Topps promotional  phrase printed on wrappers in 1950 and early 1951; perhaps they were toying with it first as this page has a "Save 'Em Swap 'Em" line at lower right.

I believe all 200 subjects were issued in stamp format but the larger sheets these quadrants came from were not organized enough to support eight pages of specific subjects.

Aunt Hannah's was a Pittsburgh baker and was a subsidiary of Baur's Bread when the stamps were issued. They had a long history of premium offers and were a well known company at the mid point of the 20th century. They had a spiffy looking delivery truck back the day to boot:

Here's a World War 2 era premium they offered; it gives you a good look at at the character of Aunt Hannah:

I'll dig out the other stamp scans and get them posted just as soon as I can.