At Sea in a Bottle

 

QUESTION: My grandfather was a merchant seaman for most of his life. From his work, he developed a passion for historic ships and out of that for models of historic ships in bottles. Sadly, he’s recently passed on but before he died, he gave me the ships in bottles, about a dozen of them, that he had collected. I’m curious to learn how long people have been building models of historic ships in bottles. And exactly how did they do that?

ANSWER: Historically, the first mention of objects placed in bottles dates back to 1719. A German artist, musician and magician, Matthias Buchinger, built models, although not necessarily of ships, inside bottles. This was remarkable since he was born without arms or legs.

The oldest surviving ship in a bottle, a Turkish or a Portuguese three-masted warship, dates to 1784. Instead of laying on its side as most do, the maker placed it in an egg--shaped bottle, which hes placed upside down over a wooden stand. 

The idea of putting a model of a ship in a bottle became very popular after the fast sailing ships like the clipper came into service. So most of the antique ships in bottles found today appeared after 1840.

Ships in bottles became more popular as folk art in the second half of the 19th century, after the introduction of cheap, mass-produced bottles made with clear glass. They also became a very popular nautical gift during the late 18th and the early and mid-19th centuries in both Europe and the Americas.

Historians believe that monks living in monasteries spent tireless hours working on the earliest examples of these intricately carved models. The emergence of putting ships inside bottles can be followed back to the mid to late 19th century.

Ships in bottles were a unique way for anyone to connect with maritime history even if they weren't a sailor. By the 20th century, with the creation of new, faster ships on the seas, so ships in bottles became more diverse in design. 

Antiques experts classify a ship in a bottle as an impossible bottle—a bottle containing an object that does not appear as if it would fit through the bottle's mouth. It’s the most iconic type of impossible bottle. Other common objects often inserted into bottles include fruits, matchboxes, decks of cards, tennis balls, racketballs, Rubik's Cubes, padlocks, knots, and scissors. These may be placed inside the bottle using various mechanisms, including constructing an object inside the bottle from smaller parts, using a small object that expands or grows inside the bottle, or molding the glass around the object.

Over the centuries, many people probably asked themselves just how the model ships got into the bottles. There are two ways to place a model ship inside a bottle. The simpler way is to rig the masts of the ship and raise it up when the ship is inside the bottle. The maker built the masts, spars, and sails separately and then attached them to the hull of the ship with strings and hinges so the masts could lay flat against the deck of the ship. He then placed the ship inside the bottle and pulled the masts up using the strings attached to the masts. However, the hull of the ship must have still been able to fit through the neck of the bottle. Ships bottle makers often chose bottles with minor distortions and soft tints to hide the small details of erecting the ship inside the bottle, such as hinges on the masts. Some used specialized long-handled tools to build the entire ship inside the bottle.

Since ships of the past came in different shapes and sizes, the size of the bottle and the extent of its flat-base shape when placed horizontally mattered immensely to the makers. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

When It Comes to Coca Cola Collectibles—Buyer Beware

 

QUESTION: Several years ago, I began collecting advertising items made for Coca Cola. I have several calendars, stuffed animals, and matchbooks. They seem to be everywhere, so it wasn’t hard to begin collecting them. Recently, I purchased a serving  tray, supposedly dating from the 1930s, with a woman in a yellow swimsuit holding a bottle of Coca Cola at a local antique show which features mostly lower to middle priced late antiques and collectibles for sale. This was the most expensive Coca Cola piece I had yet purchased, so I was a bit hesitant at first. But the dealer assured me that it was authentic. Considering its age, I was surprised how bright and crisp the colors were, but I just assumed it had been used very little. How can I tell if the tray is authentic?

ANSWER: Because Coca Cola has been around for over 130 years, there’s a huge number of collectible items on the market. And with the launching of online auction and sales sites, the number has steadily grown. But this means there’s an even greater chance that some of these items are reproductions or outright fakes. 

John Pemberton, a pharmacist, created Coke syrup in 1886. He convinced a nearby soda fountain in Atlanta to add carbonated water and give it a try. At first the drink was only a modest success, Pemberton and his partner, Frank Robertson, came up with the  name Coca-Cola, scripted in a flowing hand by Robertson. That, plus a series of hand-painted banners encouraged passers-by to "Drink Coca-Cola," was the beginning of a successful marketing campaign that lives on to this day.

Coca-Cola has used its particular shade of red in its merchandising for more than a century, and its distinctive trademark has remained virtually unchanged from the original. 

Coca-Cola collectibles can be found at a variety of prices all over the Internet. EBay alone lists over 200,000 collectibles for sale, ranging from original 6.5-ounce glass bottles for 99 cents each to lifetime assortments well into six figures. Restored and working vending machines can cost $10,000 or more. Early porcelain signs and those with original neon enhancements frequently sell for thousands as well. And because of the huge variety of merchandise, many collectors tend to specialize by era, type or size.

Even though Pemberton and Robertson founded the company in the late 1890s, collecting Coca-Cola advertising items---beautiful models printed on trays, calendars, signs, and even tiny pocket mirrors—didn’t begin to get popular until the early 20th century. Coca-Cola print advertising onto just about anything and gave these items out at state fairs and schools in towns all across the country.

Coke’s advertising department placed many of the large, gorgeous cardboards and metal advertisements with store owners and gas stations as temporary promotional displays intended for seasonal use. Many ended in the trash just like those of today. People used signs to patch holes in roofs, line attic walls, or for target practice.

The overwhelming number of reproductions in this category makes it imperative that collectors learn as much as possible Coca-Cola items. Beginners can learn a lot from price guides and online forums.

Collectors typically like items produced from the late 1800s to the 1960s. But with so many items on the market, it’s only natural that some will be fake. The difference between a reproduction and a fake is that there never was an original item like the fake. At first, the Coca-Cola Company made it easy to make their reproductions look like the originals produced 50 to 100 years before. For example, the reproduction trays from 1974 had only a small written notice on the rim of the trays to say they were recently made. But savvy sellers could easily remove the notice by scraping it off with a pocket knife. 

Reproduction serving trays from the 1930s have a note on the back saying so. The original had sharper lithography with a dark-colored back while the reproduction trays had less-than-sharp lithography and a light colored back.

The location of the trademark notification has also varied throughout the years. Early on, the trademark appeared inside the long trailing C in “Coca.” Starting in the 1940s, The company moved it to a position under the entire word “Coca-Cola.” That happened because the Coca-Cola Company lost a court case. The result was the loss of the trademark control over of “Cola” since the trademark notification was only under “Coca,” not under both parts of the logo.

This change was great for collectors who want to date Coca-Cola items as being before 1940 but can lead to many problems for dating items made after 1940. Naturally many novice collectors don’t know the difference and end up paying way too much for items produced more recently.

It’s a good idea for beginning collectors to do research before making an expensive purchase and to consult more than one source for information.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Pottery with a New Orleans Flavor

 

QUESTION: I’ve always liked Arts and Crafts pottery. I understand that women made and decorated some of the different types of that pottery. One particular type that I’ve admired is Newcomb pottery. What can you tell me about it and the women who created it?

ANSWER: The years from the mid-1890s to just before World War I witnessed a progressive movement that affected not only the arts but the way people viewed how things were made.  During the second half of the 19th century, mass production of many products, including pottery, became common. This gave rise to a movement that looked back to when people made it by hand. At the same time, women began to look beyond the home to fulfill their lives. 

Newcomb Pottery was produced from 1895 to 1940. The company grew out of the pottery program at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, the women's college now associated with Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pottery was a contemporary of other Arts and Crafts potteries, such as Rookwood, North Dakota, Teco, and Grueby.

Pottery decoration was one of the programs offered at the College since other Arts and Crafts potteries, such as the Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati had begun employing women to decorate their pots This was one field where women could earn money in a respectable manner.

Under the tutelage of Professor William Woodward, advanced Newcomb art students participated in the Tulane Decorative Art League, which combined with the New Orleans Art League Pottery Club to take over the old New Orleans Art Pottery facility in 1890. Students employed their pottery decorating skills here until the Newcomb Pottery was organized in 1895. The Pottery Club encouraged Newcomb students with decorating experience to focus their artistic efforts on wares produced at the school facility. The plan was to establish a pottery program by converting a former chemistry laboratory into a pottery studio so that students could sell their wares and make the program self sufficient.

Two art professors, Ellsworth and William Woodward, who had been members of the faculty since the opening of Newcomb College became the driving forces behind the College’s art school. Ellsworth Woodward developed a curriculum in which women could be trained to earn money in a field other than the already acceptable vocation of teaching.

The first people the Woodwards hired to assist with the new pottery program were the potters. Unlike the artists who created and carved the designs for the Newcomb Pottery, the potters were all men. Even though the College was progressive for its day, the administration believed that only men could work the clay, throw the pots, fire the kiln, and handle the glazing. So they hired men to throw the pots, a task the school considered unladylike, beyond the abilities of the female students, and beneath their dignity  The first potter they hired in 1895 was a Frenchman named Jules Garby 1895. Joseph Meyer, one of Newcomb Pottery's most recognized potters, followed him in 1896, About the same time, the Woodwards hired the eccentric potter George Ohr. His tenure lasted for less than two years, at which time they fired him because they said he was unfit to instruct young ladies. Ohr went on to establish his own pottery in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1897.  

Jonathan Hunt replaced Meyer in 1927 and later Kenneth Smith in 1929. After Hunt left the Pottery in 1933, Francis Ford replaced him. Both Smith and Ford stayed with the Newcomb Pottery program through its termination in 1940.

Eventually, the Pottery designated women who worked regularly in it as craftsmen with a preference given to those who had completed an undergraduate degree and a later graduate studies program with the school’s art department.

The women were responsible for creating and carving designs for each piece of pottery the program produced. During the Pottery’s existence, they created and carved over 70,000 unique pieces.

Early pieces at the Pottery closely reflected the Arts and Crafts style. The pottery often depicted Louisiana's local flora, done in blue, yellow and green high glazes. Newcomb Pottery was at its peak from 1897 to 1917. During that time, the women experimented with various glazes and designs, winning many awards at exhibitions throughout the country and in Europe. 

As the school entered the 1920s, new professors arrived and began to introduce influences from the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art. Highly carved pieces done in matt glazes of blue, green and pink marked this period. The Pottery introduced one of its most famous designs, the "Moon & Moss" style, during this time.

Newcomb Pottery also recruited pottery experts to help improve its product. Among them was Mary Given Sheerer from the Cincinnati area, originally hired to train the students in the slip-decorating techniques popularized at that time by the Rookwood Pottery.

Though training genteel young women was the Pottery’s main goal, the potters and students attempted a number of styles, as they sought to best use the raw materials available in the vicinity of New Orleans. The had originally planned to replicate the contemporary style of the Rookwood Pottery but that failed because slip-painting was unreliable in the hot and humid New Orleans climate. By 1900, Sheerer had to adapt her style, first to biscuit-painted designs and later to incised decorations, both under a high-gloss transparent glaze.

The potters also experimented with the types of clays they used to form the pots. The first clays they used fired either red or buff. A few years later, they used only clays from St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. They mixed these clays with loam gathered from the banks of the Mississippi River to produce white bodies.

With the end of the First World War, the popularity of the Arts and Crafts Movement waned. What had once seemed attractive and desirable because of its handmade qualities now looked rustic, old-fashioned and amateurish.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.