What's the earliest "Deco" soda you've heard of?

[SODAPOPBOB]

Then Mr. John Pemberton who was a pharmacist and coca-lover, sought to combine the ultimate medicine and perfect drink in one glorious cocktail, it was called "Pemberton's French Wine Coca", It was said to be "a most wonderful invigorator of the sexual organs".[/align] [/align] [/align]

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

First ad ... 1885

The Invigorator in the World!

In 1885, a man named John Pemberton created a drink called “Pemberton’s French Wine Cocaâ€. It was a mixture of alcohol, cocaine, the kola nut and an herb called damiana. According to Pemberton in an interview with the Atlanta Journal, his wine was sold and marketed mainly to “scientists, scholars, poets, divines, lawyers, physicians, and others devoted to extreme mental exertion.â€

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

Just for the record, what I call "The French Connection" with Coca Cola is a fantasy of my own whimsical design. It primarily derives from Pemberton's "French Wine Coca," and the artistic influence that France has had on the world over the years. Mainly I was focusing on the Eiffel Tower as the iconic symbol which first introduced modernism to the world. I am well aware of the following ...

SPBOB

The equally famous Coca-Cola bottle, called the "contour bottle" within the company, but known to some as the "hobble skirt" bottle, was created in 1915 by bottle designer, Earl R. Dean. In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company launched a competition among its bottle suppliers to create a new bottle for the beverage that would distinguish it from other beverage bottles... "a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was".[/align] [/align]
Chapman J. Root, president of the Root Glass Company, turned the project over to members of his supervisory staff including company auditor T. Clyde Edwards, plant superintendent Alexander Samuelsson and Earl R. Dean, bottle designer and supervisor of the bottle molding room. Root and his subordinates decided to base the bottle’s design on one of the soda’s two ingredients, the coca leaf or the kola nut, but were unaware of what either ingredient looked like. Dean and Edwards went to the Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library and were unable to find any information about coca or cola. Instead they were inspired by a picture of the gourd-shaped cocoa pod in the Encyclopædia Britannica which Chapman Root approved as the model for the prototype.

Faced with the upcoming scheduled maintenance of the mold-making machinery, over the next 24 hours Dean sketched out and created the mold for the bottle. Dean then molded a small number of bottles before the glass-molding machinery was turned off.

[ Earl R. Dean's original concept drawing - 1915 ][/align]

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

This will be my last contribution to this topic, and hopefully will "cap off" the "point" I am attempting to make. Which is ... when modernism was born.

I think we all agree that deco style soda bottles were an attempt to "modernize" what was previously a rather mundane and boring line of straight-sided, paper label bottles like the hundreds of varieties that dominated the market between about 1900 and 1915. Note* (It would be interesting to research and find out whose "idea" it was to modernize those early bottles in the first place ... and why?)

In any event, someone got it into their brain and do so and the rest is, as they say, history. The result of which are examples of deco bottles that adorn the shelves of many a collector. And are some of the coolest bottles known, soda or otherwise. And even though I believe it was the Coca Cola hobbleskirt that crossed the "transition bridge" first, and with the most flare, my personal favorite of the "true deco styles" has to be the Nehi "Top of the World" bottle. (One of these days I hope to acquire one).

So back to the "Granddaddy" symbol of modernism, which I believe was the Eiffel Tower. Notice in the 1884 illustration below of the world's tallest structures at the time. Notice in the very back that it was the Washington monument. That is until the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889 and held the title of the world's tallest structure until the construction of the Chrysler building in New York city in 1930.

But my "point" here is not with height ... but rather with "design." Notice the various design styles below which range from Egyptian to Greek to Roman and everything in between. None of which are very "modern" looking to me! But the Eiffel Tower? Oh my, what a design it was, and still is! There was little if anything like it, and it was considered modern by every sense of the word.

So there you have it. My evaluation of the first modern structure that led the way for other concepts and designs, including the introduction of "Deco Soda Pop Bottles." Soda bottles just don't get any cooler than decos!

SPBOB

[ The world's tallest structures in 1884 - But not very "modern" looking ]

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

This is a follow up to my own question regarding "who" was on the cutting edge of early deco soda bottles. Below is page 160 from the 1926 "Illinois Glass" bottle catalog. Some of the brands you will recognize. I'd sure like to see what types of soda bottles "Illinois Glass" was producing between 1920 and 1925. The only other catalog of their's I am aware of is dated 1906, but all of those are basically straight-sided.

Thanks to everyone, especially Wheelah23, for allowing me to make up for lost time.

SPBOB

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

And just for the record, here is my personal favorite. The famed Nehi "Top of the World." 1927 - If this wasn't influenced by the Eiffel Tower I don't know what was! Lol (maybe)?

 

[SODAPOPBOB]

For comparison to the bottle above ... ?

 

[Wheelah23]

Bravo, SPBOB! I for one found your presentation to be quite enlightening. Even if my "Ransley's Inc." bottles aren't very early decos (1923 isn't very unusual), I'm glad I could give you a chance to showcase your considerable knowledge. I think your post deserves the justice of being organized in an article format. I think you could write up a formal article or something for a bottle magazine, or maybe a bottle collecting site.

 

[surfaceone]

Well done Bob.

We've discussed the Nouveaux and the Deco, but have given no consideration to the Arts & Crafts movement, which ran concurrently with Art Nouveau, and intruded on Deco, especially in the States. In the US, it was often referred to as the American Craftsman style.

The Morris Chair

Steuben Aurene vase

Greene & Greene for the James Culbertson House, 1910.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Darwin D. Martin House, “Tree of Life†Window, 1904

I think a case could be made for the Contour bottle being a fine example of the American Craftsman movement.

 

[epackage]

ORIGINAL: SODAPOPBOB

First ad ... 1885

The Invigorator in the World!

In 1885, a man named John Pemberton created a drink called “Pemberton’s French Wine Cocaâ€. It was a mixture of alcohol, cocaine, the kola nut and an herb called damiana. According to Pemberton in an interview with the Atlanta Journal, his wine was sold and marketed mainly to “scientists, scholars, poets, divines, lawyers, physicians, and others devoted to extreme mental exertion.â€

Not the "REAL" first ad SPB, Benjamin Kent came up with Coca Cola in 1884, a year before Pemberton....This fine PATERSON NJ druggist almost had his day....[8D][8D][8D]

http://books.google.com/books?id=bSAChoqpnHUC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22benjamin+kent%22+%22paterson%22&source=bl&ots=JuPhhZikgb&sig=_2Sp0aB2GGfkxzhIyUtDPl81TQY&hl=en&ei=TX43Tr2lPM21tgf_weyNAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22benjamin%20kent%22%20%22paterson%22&f=false