Vintage Lane Miniature Cedar Box WITH KEY-LINDE FURNITURE, INC. CHEBOYGAN, MICHI For Sale

Miniature Lane cedar boxes are iconic American symbols of ?days-gone-by?, ?remember when? and ?back-in-the-day.? Lane, mostly know for cedar hope chests, manufactured and distributed an estimated 27 million miniature boxes from 1925 to 2004 and their innovative Girl Graduate Plan was one of the most successful marketing programs of the 20th century. Lane Furniture?s Girl Graduate Plan presented the little boxes to young ladies as a high school graduation gifts through their national network of dealers. To this day, women all across the country treasure their little boxes as reminders of their high school graduation and that special time in their lives.

The miniatures were initially introduced as part of a marketing campaign called the Girl Graduate Plan which was the brainchild of Lane Sales Manager, J. Arthur Krauss. Over the decades, the Plan offered the miniature chests as high school graduation gifts to girls across the country. Most often, the boxes were presented by a Lane dealer when she visited the furniture store with her parents. Lane's motives were pretty obvious albeit revolutionary for the time.

Lane knew in the 1930's, when the Plan was initiated, that between 1/2 and 2/3 of young ladies would be married within 18 months of graduation and would be setting up a household in need of furniture. Also, more immediately, Lane's domination of the Cedar Chest market was largely due to this Girl Graduate Plan promotion. When the graduate arrived at the dealer, the dealer would suggest the idea of the purchase of a full sized Lane Cedar Hope Chest to her parents as a high school graduation present. Often, the dealer would offer a special discount or promotional sale to the parents of the graduate perhaps even with special financing options.
Lane miniatures were made exclusively for the Girl Graduate Plan until the 1980's when Lane began selling the miniatures directly to consumers and through other promotions with companies like Disney and JCPenney's.