1879-1899 Handmade Wooden Baker’s Extracts Crate-Portland, Maine

Made in the late 1800s by Maurice Baker. Constructed of various native woods in 19th century New England such as Pine, Spruce, and Cedar.
Maurice would make wooden shipping crates by purchasing local sawn softwood boards, cutting them to size with hand or steam-driven saws, and nailing the panels together. Baker connected the panels by using box joints or overlapping joints (dovetail joint) and then branding the exterior with stencils.
Local inexpensive, plentiful regional lumber like white pine or spruce from Portland’s active timber and river-driving industries was his preference for his wooden crates. Maurice would buy pre-cut or rough-sawn planks from local sawmills, then planed them down to uniform thicknesses for sides, tops, bottoms, and ends.

Mr. Baker is responsible for BAKERS FRUIT EXTRACTS, a famous national household name for late 19th century, as well as early 20th century, food flavorings and extracts. Baker’s “pumped out” millions of small glass bottles of vanilla, lemon, and exotic extracts for 83 years before being sold to McCormick and Company of Baltimore, Maryland in 1962.

It all began in 1879 when Maurice brewed alcohol in apothecary style (est. 1847, J. Burnett) operation with Mexican vanilla and sassafras (sarsaparilla) roots. He mixed them into extracts for his own personal and neighborly use. Shortly thereafter, Maurice started a sole-proprietorship called Baker’s Extract Company, with the motto “Strength and Purity”. In 1899, Baker opened a small steam-powered factory in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1909, the company moved from Springfield's Hampden Street into a larger, dedicated facility at Dwight and Bridge Streets in Springfield.
Baker’s Extract Company quickly became famous for its "Baker Boy" logo and later on coupon-redeeming reward programs for household goods and games. Operations eventually expanded into a prominent 40,000-square-foot plant at 1 Extract Place.
After Maurice passed away, Baker’s was under the leadership of close friend T.W. Carmen. Carmen passed away in 1938 leaving the company’s longtime employees to assume ownership for another 24 years until the McCormick's acquisition. The new owners then moved all Baker operations to the McCormick's plant in Baltimore from both Baker's Springfield and Portland locations. Both the historic Baker Extract factories were eventually demolished by the year 2013. As of 2026, McCormick’s and Company only puts out one product bearing homage to Maurice Baker.
McCormick Baker's Imitation Vanilla Flavor is now a budget-friendly, alcohol-free artificial vanilla extract made by McCormick & Company.
Sold typically in large 8-fluid-ounce bottles, it delivers a rich vanilla taste designed to withstand high heat in baking and freezing without losing flavor.

*The Baker extract brand was established before all the “Big Extract Three” of McCormick & Co. (Boston), Adams Extract (Michigan) and The Dolan Flavoring Company that was established in 1906 in also Portland, Maine, by founder Harry A. Dolan.
Harry Dolan was a pioneer in using real fruit extracts after the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act forced commercial producers to legally distinguish between "natural" fruit extracts and “artificial" chemical imitations for the first time.

EXTRACTS IN AMERICA
In the early days of imitation flavored extracts included alcohol. Extracts were used for medicinal purposes and needed flavoring. This is known as “apothecary styled remedies “and soon after also known as a multi-purpose flavoring additive
The apothecary kitchen mixtures were siphoned into one of two miniature glass bottles…a trial or a standard.
A trial was a 1-fluid ounce bottle and stood around 3 1/2 inches tall, marketed for single recipes or small household needs.
A standard was a 2-fluid ounce bottle and stood roughly 4 1/2 to 5 5/8 inches tall and about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. They often featured a rectangular or paneled shape with embossed brand lettering and a cork stopper.
Vanilla extract was then and now, the most widely used flavored extract. Alongside vanilla, lemon extract was the other major pantry staple, heavily relied upon for cakes, icings, and hard candies during the rise of commercial baking. Lemon extract was extremely valued for adding a sharp citrus punch before fresh year-round citrus was readily available in many parts of the country. It was pressed natural oil from lemon rinds mixed in an alcohol base.
Almond and Black Walnut extracts were used as a unique flavor for old-fashioned cakes, cookies, pastries and breads. Orange extracts were expressed natural sweet orange peel oil. By the 20th century,Raspberry was synthetic or a blended ester formulation mimicking berry top notes. Pineapple was also also an artificial ester solution that was designed to replicate tropical fruit.
Early artificial variants of Banana were formulated by using chemical compounds like isoamyl acetate as well.


HANDMADE WOODEN CRATE
Baker measured and cross-cut boards using foot-powered saws at first, then later belt-driven circular saws powered by small steam plants but were not so small by then.
By assembling panels with simple interlocking dovetailed wood joints, Maurice handmade smaller, high-strength product boxes. He fastened the panels by using mass-produced wire nails or cut iron nails driven by hand hammers. This provided wooden interior dividers, and used straw, sawdust, and paper wrapping to keep glass extract bottles from shattering during transport. The final step before shipping or storing was trademarking his extract bottles on the outside of his crates. Baker stenciled by using black oil-board stencils or branded hot-iron stamps directly onto the exterior wood to display the company name, contents, and one or two addresses…Portland, Springfield, or sometimes both.

Excellent condition for age (no bottles included)
6.25” X 6.25” X 5-3/8”
Weighs 12 ounces
RARE FIND

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