74
Old Snifter
New York, New York, August 6, 1935 - Although Prohibition ended back in 1933
on April 7 with the relegalization of beer, John Schuchardt came up with a
reminder of that period in a functional statue he calls
“
Old Snifter.
”
It will
remove a bottle cap or pull a cork and it sits on the bar as a reminder that
alcoholic beverages are now legal. Schuchardt said it is a
“
working, practical
apparatus of a cast bronze or cast iron construction, and one that is suitable for
display purposes.
”
The hand of the figure serves as the cap lifter and by turning the head, the worm
pops out of the rear end forming a
“
T
”
with the body for pulling corks.
Some folks are of the opinion that the figures represent Andrew Volstead, a
former Republican member of the United States Congress (1902-1922), who is
sometimes called the
“
Father of Prohibition.
”
It is not Volstead, rather it is a
direct takeoff on the
“
Dry
”
figure invented by the cartoonist Rollin Kirby in a
1933 Vanity Fair article entitled
“
The Death of a Puppet
”
.
Schuchardt applied for the patent the year before issue and the figure was
produced by Dollin Die Casting Company of Irvington, New Jersey and sold by
the Negbaur Company of New York. The United States Patent Office assigned
number 2,010,326 to Schuchardt
‟
s invention.
