September 17, 2017
Pages 5266
Whole Number 188
SPARKS FLOUR [Canister] - CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY IT?
(picture and description of Flour can)
The Sparks Flour canister and sitter shown above was purchased recently by a member of our Association, Sue Langanki, 645 Tonkawa Rd., Long Lake, Minnesota, 55356. Mrs. Langanki has kindly provided us with the above photograph with an account of how she came into possession of this antique. It was quite a fluke on how I obtained the can. We were on vacation in August 1998 in northern Minnesota near Deer River, and I decided to do some "garage saleing." We were driving around on dirt roads and spotted a sale. My eyes were drawn to this can because of the name Sparks on it. It is 28 inches high and 41 inches in circumference. On the top lid there are the words "Cream City" in small letters. It would hold about fifty pounds of flour. I asked the man conducting the sale whether he knew anything about its history. All he could tell me was that it had been in his Dad's attic for 40 or 50 years, and he thought he had bought it at an old A & P Store in Chicago that was going out of business. Because my grandmother was a Sparks, I bought it. I hope that someone in the Association can tell me something about "Sparks Flour."