# Happy Anniversay



## Bass Assassin (Nov 16, 2015)

Happy Anniversay to the hobble skirt Coca Cola. 100 years ago this date Coca Cola received the patent for the bottle that changed the industry and set Coca Cola apart.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 16, 2015)

And here's the patent to prove it - plus one of two known prototypes - which sold for $240,000 [attachment=Coca Cola Bottle Patent 1915 (2).jpg] [attachment=Coca Cola Prototype For Comparison.png]


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## Robby Raccoon (Nov 16, 2015)

And they still weren't happy till they ran a few hundred companies into the ground and even went so far to buy out entire countries' water-supplies.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 16, 2015)

Just for the record ... The original 1915 prototype was designed by *Earl R. Dean* and not Alexander Samuelson ...                          Read all about it [attachment=Dean Coca Cola Book (345x500).jpg]


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## hemihampton (Nov 16, 2015)

My 1915 Detroit Version. LEON.


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## goodman1966 (Nov 16, 2015)

My Jackson Mississippi version. (Light blue) 
[attachment=image.jpg]


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## CreekWalker (Nov 16, 2015)

Happy anniversary from Brownsville![attachment=1915.jpg] [attachment=11-4-15 001a.JPG]


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## iggyworf (Nov 17, 2015)

I still need to find one for my girlfriends collection. Me personally - Pepsi Rules & Coke Droools! LOL!  (I collect Pepsi)


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

Being as we're talking about Patent 1915 Hobbleskirts, this might be a good time to check those date codes. The first issue Hobbleskirts were produced by the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1917 and are marked on the heel with ROOT 17. They were produced by Root and other glass makers until 1928-1930 when the Patent 1923 Hobbleskirt was first issued in 1928. Just because a particular bottle has the November 16, 1915 patent date on it doesn't mean that's when it was made. Check the heels of your bottles and you'll see what I mean. The ROOT 17 bottles are harder to come by and most sellers, especially on eBay, don't know to look for the heel marks and simply refer to them as 1915 bottles. I only have one ROOT 17, which is in pristine mint condition, which I paid $125 for and took me almost a year to find because of what I was saying about most sellers not knowing the difference between a 1917 and a 1928 Hobbleskirt. So check em' out and see if you have a true blue ROOT 17. The only true 1915 Hobbleskirts are the two remaining examples that were designed and made by Earl R. Dean in 1915, one of which is owned by the Coca Cola Company and the other by the Root family, which is the one that sold at auction in 2011 for $240,000.00


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

For future reference from Bill Porter's Coca Cola Checklist book ... [attachment=Coke Book (461x333).jpg]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

Speaking of Earl Rollo Dean and 1917, here's something I bet most of you have never seen. Its his WWI draft registration card when he was 27 years old and still single ...  [attachment=Dean Earl R Draft ...1917 (413x500).jpg]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

Dean's design for the Hobbleskirt started with a visit to the Terre Haute public library in the summer of 1915 where he found a picture of a cocoa pod in a 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, which went from ...                                               This [attachment=Cocoa Pod From Enc...text (432x600).jpg]                                               To this               (This prototype sketch sold in 2011 for $228,000.00)  [attachment=Coca Cola Prototyp...592) (500x493).jpg]                   To this [attachment=Coca Cola Prototype For Comparison.png]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

P.S. We didn't know it at the time because it was a silent auction, but we know now that it was the Coca Cola Company who bought the prototype sketch in 2011 and paid $228,000.00 for it.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

This YouTube link is to the Julien's live auction video where the prototype bottle sold in December of 2011. It actually sold for $200,000.00 but there was a buyers' premium added to it of $40,000. Check it out ...                       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WERmqcl3E7M


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## Bass Assassin (Nov 17, 2015)

Thanks for the photos everyone! As always Bob, great information. I will check my bottle when I get home today.


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## carling (Nov 17, 2015)

The original prototype is on display now in Daytona Beach.  Here's the article: https://c1.liveauctioneer...n=20151117_AuctionNews


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## Bass Assassin (Nov 17, 2015)

Thanks for the link
Bob, my Ruston,LA bottle is not marked Root 17, sorry to say.


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## iggyworf (Nov 17, 2015)

Bob, if possible could you show us some pics of your 'root 17' bottle. So we can see the markings?


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

iggyworf said:
			
		

> Bob, if possible could you show us some pics of your 'root 17' bottle. So we can see the markings?



Please stand by ... its currently packed away in my shed but I will take a quick look and see if I can find it before it gets dark. (I'm on the west coast and the sun is just starting to set).


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

I found my ROOT 17 but lost the daylight for quality photos. I had to bring it inside and what you see is the best I could do after taking about 30 pictures. The tricky part about using artificial light is trying to eliminate the glare. Anyway, the word ROOT is in capital letters and is one inch away from the 17. Earlier I said the bottle was in pristine mint condition, but I just discovered that it has a couple of fisheye pings that I don't recall being there when I bought it and must have occurred later. The bottle is from Scranton, Pennsylvania and has numerous bubbles with heavy mold seams that can be felt to the touch. Its machine made but still crude in many respects. (The background is an oil painting I'm currently working on of a local mountain and lake)  1.  Front2.  Heel with *ROOT*3.  Heel with *17* *[attachment=ROOT 17 FRONT.jpg] * *[attachment=ROOT 17 ROOT.jpg] * *[attachment=ROOT 17 (3).jpg] *


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

One of the coolest things about the ROOT 17 bottles is they were very likely molded by Earl Dean. I asked Jeff Dean (Earl's grandson) about this one time and he said he has no doubt that most of the first issue bottles were personally supervised by his grandfather and were most likely made by him and his crew.


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## iggyworf (Nov 17, 2015)

Excellent! Thanx for the pics Bob. I have trouble taking good pics most of the time. It would still be nice to have a 1915 bottle even if it is not the Root 17, but now I know what to look for. Thanx again.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

carling said:
			
		

> The original prototype is on display now in Daytona Beach.  Here's the article: https://c1.liveauctioneer...n=20151117_AuctionNews



I'm reposting carling's link because if you read the article (dated today) you will notice that it appears the Root family is still taking the lion's share of credit for designing the Hobbleskirt. Even the Coca Cola Company now gives full credit to Earl R. Dean. So I'm surprised the Root family still takes this position when everybody and their brother now knows that Earl Dean designed the Hobbleskirt almost singlehandedly. Read "The Man Behind The Bottle" and you will see what I mean. The attached newspaper article about Earl Dean's death was published in 1972 and even it gives most of the credit to Dean as the designer of the Hobbleskirt. So I have to wonder why the Root family is backtracking now and trying to lead us to believe it was a family member who designed the first prototype and not Dean? The type of reporting on the link drives the Dean family crazy because they have been trying to set the record straight for years.  Article (in three parts) from ... The Terre Haute Tribune ~ Terre Haute, Indiana ~ January 9, *1972 * *[attachment=Dean Earl R Death ...972 (357x1200).jpg] * *[attachment=Dean Earl R Death ...(2) (638x1200).jpg] * *[attachment=Dean Earl R Death ...(3) (1200x483).jpg] *


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

Here's the copy/pasted paragraph from the link article that erks me the most. Notice that nowhere in the article does it mention Earl Dean's name. "Chapman J. Root designed the original bottle with help from two colleagues a century ago, on Nov. 16, 1915. His prototype bottle went on to win a national contest held by Coca-Cola in 1916 and helped generate a fortune for the family-owned Root Glass Co. in Terre Haute, Ind."


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

P.S. If you read Norman Dean's book you will see where Chapman J. Root had little or nothing to do with the actual design. His only real connection with it was that he owned the company. He had no clue what the bottle was intended to look like until Earl Dean showed him the sketch he had drawn.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

By the way, did you know the prototype bottle the Coca Cola Company now owns was originally given to Chapman Root by Earl Dean? And then some years later, Chapman Root's son gave his bottle to the Coca Cola Company. They originally molded about a dozen bottles, ten of which were destroyed, leaving two bottles that Earl Dean put in his personal locker where they remained for several years until he gave one to Chapman Root. Its ironic that Root gave their prototype bottle to the Coca Cola Company and then in 2011 bought the only remaining example from the Dean family for $240,000,00


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

Both images are from Norman Dean's book that I was able to acquire through his son Jeff Dean [attachment=Dean, Norman L. Si...2012 (423x500).jpg] [attachment=Dean. Earl R. Retirement 1942.jpg]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 17, 2015)

I forgot to mention the live auction video was filmed by Jeff Dean and I believe it shows one of his two brothers and other family members when the camera swings left and shows a couple of ladies seated and a guy holding a camera. I believe the guy with the camera is one of Jeff's brothers, all three of which are Earl Dean's grandsons. Their father, Norman Dean, was not present at the auction.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 18, 2015)

This is the earliest publication I can find that mentions Coca Cola's new bottle. Notice where I underlined in red the word "corrugated." Imagine if it was nicknamed the corrugated bottle instead of the Hobbleskirt or Mae West. From ... The Washington Post ~ Washington, D.C. ~ April 27, 1917 [attachment=Coca Cola Prototyp...917 (684x1200).jpg]


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## bottleopop (Nov 20, 2015)

I'm a collector of deco sodas.  I have a couple of items of amusement related to this discussion. The story of the designing of the deco Coca Cola bottle by Earl R. Dean is an interesting one and I wanted to do just a bit more investigating online.  As I imagine everyone here knows, the inspiration for the Coca Cola bottle was the cocoa pod, not the cola pod.  Earl went to the library and looked in the Encyclopedia Britannica.  So I wondered, why did he use the 'wrong' plant for his bottle design inspiration?  Was it some sort of mistake?  So, I looked, and you can too.  The 11th edition of the Britannica is free and online.  The 11th edition is dated 1910 and is likely the one that Earl looked in.  I went directly to the 'right' plant, cola.  There is no entry for it.  I tried kola too, but there is no entry for that either.  Earl needed an inspiration - he was on assignment from the Root company.  Fortunately, just a few pages away from where a cola plant entry should be is the entry for cocoa.  So I think it's pretty obvious that there was no mistaken identity on Earl's part; there was simply no entry for the cola plant at that time in the Encyclopedia.  No doubt Earl looked at the drawing of the cocoa pod and thought: I can work with this! Even if Earl did find an illustration of the cola tree's pod in some other book at the library, he would not have used it.  The cola pod is quite groady looking!  No inspiration possible there. As a deco soda collector, the patent drawings for soda bottle designs interest me.  Some bottles that have a patent date on them look just like the patent drawing.  Some do not, however, and the 1915 Coke patent is an example.  As far as I can tell, no one ever drank a Coke from a bottle with that design (unless the souvenir version had Coke in it).  The design was re-done before production because it would not travel reliably on the conveyor belt.  For whatever reason, a design patent that looked like the 1915 (and 1923) Coke bottle wasn't issued until 1923. The last item I have relates to the early history of deco soda crown cap bottle design patents.  The first deco soda crown cap bottle design patent issued is of course the famous Coca Cola bottle design patent of 1915.  However, arguably, the design patent used by the Gay-Ola bottle was actually first!  The Coca Cola bottle's design patent was Filed on August 18, 1915.  The design patent for the Gay-Ola bottle was Filed over a year earlier - on August 1, 1914 but it's design patent was issued on December 18, 1917.  Why the U.S. Patent Office didn't issue the Gay-Ola bottle's design patent first is a mystery within the Patent Office, I suppose.  A design with a few rings is not nearly as exciting as the Coke bottle's famous shape but anyway, the rings design constitutes an "ornamental design for a bottle".  (There are other ornamental design bottle patents issued before these, but they are not crown cap bottle designs.)


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## Bass Assassin (Nov 20, 2015)

Bob, that is ironic that they gave a bottle away and years later purchased a bottle. 
Bottleopop, great information!


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

bottleopop Excellent reporting and well written. I just scanned these two pages from Norman Dean's 2010 book "The Man Behind The Bottle" and wanted to share them in order to read the account about Earl Dean's visit to the library in the author's own words. The use of cocoa plant doesn't appear to be so much of a mistake, but rather, as it says on page 24, "But no one has a clue what the coca and kola plants look like." So it appears they just used the next best thing, which was the cocoa pod. [attachment=Dean Book Page 23.jpg] [attachment=Dean Book Page 24 (799x1200).jpg]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

Long story short ... Three days after visiting the library, Dean was able to successfully complete the concept sketch, and with hammer and chisel made the mold. And then on Wednesday, June 30, 1915, with only 30 minutes left before shutting down the molten glass tank, poured and molded a dozen or so of the first prototype bottles.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

On February 28, 2015, the Root families example of the prototype bottle went on display at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia where it remained until this past October. Also on display was the original concept sketch loaned to the museum by the Coca Cola Company. Notice in the attached pictures from the High Museum display the cards that indicate who owned what, with the bottle being owned by the Root family and the sketch by the Coca Cola Company. These are the two items that sold at the Julien's auction in December of 2011, with the Root family paying $240,000 for the bottle and the Coca Cola Company paying $228,000 for the sketch. [attachment=Coca Cola Prototyp...le High Museum.jpg] [attachment=Coca Cola Prototyp...ch High Museum.jpg]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

Regarding Earl Dean's inspiration for the bottle, I especially like this paragraph from page 24 of the book ...                                              *"beverage fit for the gods"* *[attachment=Dean Book Page 24 (799x1200) (2).jpg] *


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

*                    Is there a "third" prototype bottle still out there somewhere?*                                        (From Page 32 of Norman Dean's book) [attachment=DEAN BOOK PAGE 32 (2).jpg]


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

Correction ... The information is a little unclear, but according to the book it appears it was Alexander Samuelson's son, Bill Samuelson, who donated the other prototype bottle to the Coca Cola Company and not a Root family member as I previously thought. Its the part where it says "... may have been passed down to Root's grandson, Chapman S. Root" that confuses me.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

After rereading the information from the book several times, the way I interpret it now is ... 1.  Bill Samuelson definitely donated a prototype bottle to the Coca Cola Company in 1967, but it is uncertain if the bottle he donated was the one that Dean left in the office or whether it was one of the dozen or so that were originally produced. 2.  The bottle that Dean left in the office for C. J. Root might have been the one that was loaned out to be photographed but was never returned. Thus leaving the Root family without a bottle until they bought one from the Dean family in 2011.   3.  Earl Dean definitely kept one of the bottles that remained in the family until it was sold in 2011.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Nov 20, 2015)

P.S. If the so called "photographer" did keep one of the bottles, it might still be in the possession of his family, but who are afraid to admit it because it could easily be traced back as having been stolen. Of course the statute of limitations would have expired by now, but if the photographer's family does still have the bottle, maybe they are just waiting for the dust to settle before coming forward with it.


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## Bass Assassin (Nov 20, 2015)

If a 3rd bottle is still out there, I don't really see how they could prosper from it. I would think a good attorney could win the case against them claiming it was taken without permission. Just speculation of course. Good stuff Bob


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## hemihampton (Nov 30, 2015)

SODAPOPBOB, I checked my 1915 Detroit Coke & no root 17 at heel, BUT it does have what looks like a G 20 at heel. or maybe 6 20. Definately has a 20 but letter or # in front of that pretty faint. What would a G20 mean? THANKS, LEON.


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## SODAPOPBOB (Dec 1, 2015)

hemihampton / Leon Based on what I know about bottle marks and the information from these two sources, I'm thinking your bottle was made by the *Graham Glass Company *in *1920*. However, I'm also thinking there should be some accompanying letters and/or numbers. Please check your bottle closely and see if it has anything else on the base and/or heel ...                                                  1.  From Bill Porter book                                                 2.  From Bill Lockhart article                              [attachment=Graham Glass Bill Porter Book.jpg] [attachment=Graham Glass Bill Lockhart.jpg]


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