Print butter

Print butter is an obsolete term for butter which was sold in wrappers printed with "some emblematic device" as a branding device (as modern butter almost always is). Originally the wrappers were normally cloth and sometimes washed and returned for re-use by the retailer. By the late 19th century greaseproof paper took over from cloth. The term is found in American sources from at least 1791 to 1949. References to print butter remain in the US state of Connecticut legal code, requiring print butter to have the net weight printed in Gothic letters at least one-half inch high.