Posted 13 years ago
Bulzi
(1 item)
So I had to take a trip to Atlanta recently and ended up going to the Coca-Cola museum. As I turned one of the corners, I see this plate with a picture of a lady on it. Bells go off in my head, it’s the same lady as a picture that my Mom has had hanging in her house for as long as I can remember. So I snapped a picture (unfortunately not a very good one) and brought it home for comparison. Sure enough, she is the same lady. I saw the little blurb from coke that says they are Vienna plates from the early 1900’s made at the Western Coca-Cola Company in Chicago. I did a little digging around on the internet, found lots of plates, but nothing that may be framed like the one my mom has. I did find out the plate is from 1905 and the image is from advertising of the time.
As far as the history of the picture hanging at Mom’s…She has had it for somewhere around 30 years. She got it from my grandmother’s neighbor’s house after he passed away. My Mom was fairly close with the neighbor and remembers it hanging in their house for as long as she can remember (this probably takes it back to the late 50’s or early 60’s). She recalls the neighbors where fairly poor and decorated their house with basically whatever they could get their hands on. When I look at the picture, you can see it is not a photograph. There are no markings on the back. The frame has paper glued to the back so we can’t see the back of the actually piece. My Mom is ready to cut it open to see what it might be, I talked her out so I can do some digging around first. I put a tape measure with the picture, its roughly 16 - 17 inches tall.
So I’m still trying to find out what it is she has and where it came from. Did they every sell anything framed like this? Any info would be great, including anywhere we may be able to get more information. I've seen the plates on this site under Victorian Era category.
I hope this makes sense, if we can answer any questions for you, please let me know.
Thanks!
Dont get too excited. While it may be the same image of the girl, the "girl\" isnt a "Coca-Cola" girl. The midwest bottling company in Chicago produced a lot of their own "bootleg" items in the early 1900's without the approval of Mr. Candler , the very straight laced president of the Coca-Cola Company. They were produced for Coca-Colas bar trade. There are several images of risque women such as these, with even one bare breasted. The same plates can be found with no or other advertising such as beer on the back as well. Since these plates were produced with "stock" artwork from the period, it is most likely yours was too. I doubt if you find any advertisement anywhere on the print, let alone Coca-Cola. Good luck though.