PieceAristocrat Tomato
Year1982
ConditionC -10
Description9.5" hard plastic
CompanyH.J. Heinz Company


A tomato is not just a vegetable. At least not to the powers-to-be at H.J. Heinz Company. In the mid-1930's, Heinz wanted to publicize its tasty Tomato Juice. After all, they felt their's was far superior than the competition's. Heinz wanted a campaign which would really squash the "imitators". But most importantly, they wanted to ensure that they were the "aristocrat" of all tomato juices.

Well, if you're want to portray yourself as an aristocrat you might as well just be one! The monocled Aristocrat Tomato appeared in print not only with his grandparents, but also sported the top hat and ascot of the day. For decades, this 'blue blooded" tomato was seen on Heinz's ketchup, soup and juice packaging.

The Aristocrat Tomato was originally to wear tuxedos, vests and silk hats. However, "he" felt it best to also wear garb of the "common folk" such as farmers and engineer. In essence, the Aristocrat Tomato was a tomato for all people!

This 3-dimensional clock has an alarm, and also announces the hour. The clock is art-deco styled, with red, green and white trim.

Click here to see an Aristocrat Tomato from 1939.

If you are using Netscape Gold for Windows 95, Netscape 3.0 for Mac, Netscape 2.0 for Unix, or any JAVA enabled browser, you can listen to the clock announce the time as 6 P.M. when this page loads. On most browsers it should replay when you re-select this item from the Exhibit view, otherwise, "reload frame" from the View menu.



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