I picked up this sugar cube on eBay a couple of years ago. It wasn’t until I scanned it and blew up the images on both sides that I could see the detail of what was printed.
I’m guessing by the looks of the cars in the graphic below that this was from the 1940s. I would love to see the original artwork for this.
I have a few printer’s blocks from The Cow that were probably used for various menus and other printing press-printed materials. I’m working on making some prints from those to share sometime soon.
On the side is the logo and patent number by Quaker Cane Sugar. Apparently U.S. Patent 1882124 is a patent for “Wrapper for sugar units and like articles.”
It was patented by Alexander Dienst and Jacob J. Neuman in 1932. The beauty (or horror) of the Internet is that I can send you right to the original patent. To the left is a small bit
of the diagram included with the patent.
I could go on with researching the backgrounds of Dienst and Neuman but I’ll leave that to you. Especially, as they have little to do with The Guernsey Cow except providing the idea for the wrapper used for the sugar cube that sits on my desk now some 60 or 70 years later.
The Guernsey Cow, Exton, Pennsylvania 