When Were Akro Liberty Corks Made?

[bumblebee]

I just gave one as a gift to a non-collector who appreciates antiques. I was tempted to say they were made in the early 1940s as a patriotic response to the war effort, but did not remember a source for that being fact. Anyone have solid info as to when they were made?

[lstmmrbls]

I do not believe they had anything to do with the War effort. That is a popular color combo that has been used since German handmades. Mid to Late 30s would be my estimate as when they were first introduced. Steph probably can come up with something more accurate.

[bumblebee]

Yeah, it doesn't make sense they would reserve that color combo just for the War since we know Specials came out earlier, but it also seems likely they may have doubled up on production of them during the War. But I'm assuming since Akro had so many color combos they likely did not put out an ad just to announce the red white and blue ones, by which we could date them.

[Steph]

Is this a liberty cork in this ad?

I think this was 1931. It's one I spent some time trying to pin down and I may be confused about what I ultimately found, but 1931 is the date coming to mind right now.

[bumblebee]

Yes! I saw a tiny version of that in your timeline thread but couldn't make out the colors. So it seems safe to say "as early as 1931" up until whenever they stopped making tricolor/specials.

[Steph]

Yes.

Akro Tri-Color Agates were definitely around by January 1931. So were possibly already around in 1930. (How wild is that, considering corks were only introduced in 1929 or 1930?)

Here's a Jan 1931 Boys' Life with them: http://books.google.com/books?id=OVtPo30Su2sC&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false

And that color catalog ad calls the Tri-Colors new, backing up the 1931-ish idea.

We can maybe talk about what Akro meant by "Specials" later. *hehe*

[Steph]

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