Contour bottle
Coca-Cola’s bottle of 1915 – shaped to be recognisable in the dark and even when broken.
Coca-Cola wanted a bottle that set it apart from all imitations. The brief was said to be a bottle recognisable in the dark or from a fragment. The Root Glass Company won the competition in 1915.
The designer Earl R. Dean is said to have been inspired by a cocoa pod in an encyclopedia. The bottle was later registered as a trademark, and the shape is protected – so only a drawing is shown.
Materials: Glass, often greenish
Manufacture: Designed by the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute and mould-blown in large runs.
A fluted body narrowing at the waist.
The glass colour and place of manufacture moulded into the base.
Patent dates or year markings in the glass.