November,

ANOTHER "HISTORICAL FLASK ARTICLE" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

Many of us are aware of the fact that historical and pictorial flasks were produced in a vast array of colors and styles. This early use of color and design as an advertising technique helped bolster sales for the spirits contained in the flasks.

Many historically important people and icons are forever memorialized in glass. George Washington graces well over 100 different flasks, with the American eagle not far behind.

But there are many other flasks that depict people, events, slogans, names, and initials, which have little or no meaning to us today. So my purpose here is to solute the not so famous, the obscure, of the flask world.

Trying to categorize these flasks, I've come up with five general groups, which I'll talk about in varying degrees of detail.

GLASSWORKS/RETAILERS

Probably the grouping with the most obscure items is what I'm calling Glassworks/Retailers.

There are a number of flasks, which contain the names or initials of glass works, mold makers, or glass house owners. These flasks are sometimes the only concrete evidence that a particular piece was made at a specific glass house.

Although interesting to glass researches and historians, the flasks containing glass house information is not very interesting to the average person.

In addition to these glass house flasks, there is a large number of flasks which contain the initials, names, and sometimes addresses, of wine and liquor merchants. One of the most complete of this group is GI-78, which says “ROBT. RAMSAY WINE & LIQUOR MERCHT 281 8^th AVENUE N.Y.”.

These retailer flasks, like the glass house flasks, are interesting and collectible to the specialist. For the average collector, however, neither of these types of flasks are unusually interesting.

EVENTS

There are many events, both fairly well known, and obscure, which decorate flasks. The 400^th anniversary of “Christopher Columbus” discovery of the new world is commemorated on several flasks which depict the Santa Maria and the Columbian Jubilee 1492 – 1892, as well as The Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Another interesting event immortalized in glass is the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826 (this flask also highlights the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the same day).

Not just events involving people are remembered on flasks, some flasks picture such events as a record setting trotting horse. These series of flasks says “FLORA TEMPLE – HARNESS TROT 2.19 3/4 – OCT. 15, 1859”. Without his flask, who would have ever heard of Flora Temple?

There are many more examples of events which are immortalized in glass, some of which are discussed under the next heading.

PEOPLE

Many near famous or formerly famous people are depicted on flasks. Such diverse people as Louis Kossuth (a Hungarian patriot), Jenny Lind (a Swedish singer), Sir Walter Scott (a Scottish novelist), John Byron (an English poet) and Samuel Ringold (a Mexican War hero) are all memorialized on flasks.

Dr. Thomas Dyott, entrepreneur and glass house owner, was too impressed with his own accomplishments, that he had flasks created which bear his likeness.

Dewitt Clinton, a name that we probably learned in American History in elementary school, adorns several flasks. Did he invent the cotton gin? The steam engine? No he was the guy who conceived and spearheaded the effort to create the Erie Canal.

THINGS

For lack of a better name, “things” are items which otherwise lack categorization. In this group I've included ships (an unnamed sailing ship seen on flasks from Bridgetown, New Jersey, the U.S. Frigate Mississippi, and the ship Franklin);

organizations (Tennessee Valley Authority, the Masons, and GRJA (Grand Royal Jerusalem Arch); and places (Pike's Peak, Fells Point, and Manchester, Connecticut).

Some things recognize wartime heroism (the Baltimore Battle Monument), others peacetime prosperity (cornucopia, Ear of corn, sheaf of wheat). Still others recognize freedom, with pictures of the Liberty Cap on a pole, Columbia with a Liberty Cap, the “Charter Oak” with the word “LIBERTY”, or just the phrase “LIBERTY & UNION”.

Other flasks celebrate the seasons, by showing trees in “SUMMER” and “WINTER”. And still other just celebrate the act of celebrating, with such phrases as “TRAVELER'S COMPANION” and “WILL YOU TAKE A DRINK? WILL A (picture of a duck) SWIM?”

SLOGANS

But far and away the group of flasks with the most diversity and obscurity are those which contain slogans or sayings. Some of these slogans are related to war and the generals which fought them. Zachary Taylor takes the price in this category with such sayings “GENERAL TAYLOR NEVER SURRENDERS”, “A LITTLE MORE GRAPE CAPT. BRAGG”, “I HAVE ENDEAVORED TO DO MY DUTY”, “ROUGH AND READY”, and of course Taylor's attempt to equate himself with George Washington, whom he gave the title “FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY”.

Other flasks extol such diverse sentiments as “LIBERTY & UNION” and “DRAFTED”.

There are series of political flasks telling you to vote for “OUR CHOICE AND STEVE”, “SOUND MONEY & PROTECTION/MCKINLEY & HOBART – IN GOLD WE TRUST”, “IN SILVER WE TRUST/BRYAN 1896 SEWALL – WE SHALL VOTE/UNITED DEMOCRATIC TICKET”, or just plain “REPUBLICAN GRATITUDE” (which is more related to the Republic of the United States, instead of Republican vs. Democratic).

Others wish for “GOOD GAME”, “SUCCESS TO THE RAILROAD”, “CORN FOR THE WORLD”, and a “AGRUCULTURE”. Some take more of a radical attitude, when they say “AMERICAN SYSTEM, USE ME BUT DO NOT ABUSE ME”, “FOR OUR COUNTRY”, “FREE TRADE AND SAILORS RIGHTS”, “WHERE LIBERTY DWELLS, THERE IS MY COUNTRY” and “ERIPUIT COELO FULMEN. SCEPTURM-QUE TYRANNIS (He snatches from the sky the thunderbolt, and the scepter from tyrants)”.

William Henry Harrison, and his 1840 campaign for President, gave us such obscure images as a log cabin, “HARD CIDER”, “TIPPICANOE” and “NORTH BEND”. The `Log Cabin and Hard Cider' slogan, which became a Harrison slogan to exemplify his down to earth nature, originally came from the rival camp of Henry Clay. So what is Tippicanoe and North Bend? Two battles from the War of 1812 at which Harrison was a military commander.

But one of the most obscure of all of these obscure flasks in one with a girl riding an old fashioned bicycle. Emanating from her mouth is a long, fork-ended pennant, inscribed with the phrase “NOT FOR JOE”. All I know is that this is the title of a song popular in the 1870s – obscurity to the maximum.

SUMMARY

In these days of instant information via the Internet, glass and bottles are no longer used as media for memorializing people or events of the day. If it were, I wonder what future generations would make of flasks with pictures of O.J. Simpson, a stack of Pogs, or the title “Achy Breaky Heart”.

REFERENCE:

McKearin, Helen and Kenneth M. Wilson, “American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry”, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1978.

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