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Article VII - A Visual GESTALT Shift - Part II | back to Articles
by Wil Martindale
After having sold off many Baltimore sodas years ago, and really never having accumulated examples of the torpedo form, it wasn't until I re-acquired a good example of an early BOYD ten pin that it dawned on me... of course I had seen this embossing style before - on dozens of Baltimore torpedos.
I simply failed to factor in those wild, boldly embossed torpedos and ten-pins. They are "giants" in form, dwarfing the soda form (even this one below, which dwarfs most other normal sized sodas). Like many others I'm sure, I have always generally thought of the torpedos as a unique category unto themselves - until placing these two bottles beside one another.
Even Jeff Wichmann seems to have drawn a similar conclusion: "It has to be the boldest embossing we’ve seen on any bottle..." and yet, I suspect if Jeff had thought back to the torpedo's he had sold in the past, he might re-think that statement as well.
As I examined the similarities, it seemed undeniable that the color, glass character, bold font style, age and even the missing pontil made these two bottles so alike, and yet so uniquely different from most anything else out there, that I am fairly convinced now that they were designed and worked by the same mold maker / engraver, and blown at the same glasshouse -- it seems nothing short of obvious.
Some of the immediate questions that come to mind are: Was this a rare "stand up" mineral manufactured in Baltimore at a time when torpedos were much more popular? If so, does that explain why the Baltimore diggers have never reportedly dug one? Was it designed to be an export, during the early to mid-40's torpedo era, for markets outside of Baltimore which did not prefer the torpedo shape? Is the total absence of a defineable pontil evidence that the bottle was finished in a clamp, alongside the torpedos in the production line?
Of course I can only theorize that the bottle is what I think it is. I have no dig context to draw from, nor any corroborating evidence from diggers. But now that I have experienced this visual Gestalt shift, it's likely that I'll look at some other bottles differently going forward.
For example, I am leaning even further now toward attributing some of those odd, oversized Charleston sodas to the handiwork of the Baltimore torpedo-mold engraver(s), like the Steinke's and Schlepegrells (which others have attributed to Baltimore) as well as the C. Alfs. The "RETURN THIS BOTTLE" and "THIS BOTTLE TO BE RETURNED" phrasing on those, which is found on numerous other molds attributed to Baltimore, vs. the more popular "THIS BOTTLE IS NEVER SOLD" lends even more creedence to this theory.
By no coincidence, even this month's FPS, the R.P. COOK soda seems to be a candidate for this comparison.
In conclusion, I think we have to accept the strong possibility that the artisan who engraved the proprietor and city names into the Washington D.C. and Baltimore torpedos and ten-pins may have carried over his heavy-handed style into some oversized, but non-torpedo, forms.
Of those that qualify for the comparison (and which I have been able to compare first hand) this MINERAL / WATER provides the most compelling evidence of that possibility.
