The Glass Mouthpiece
I reproduced these glass mouthpieces
for a while and made nearly a dozen of them. The originals are very
rare. They were introduced around the time of the 1917 flu epidemic
in the US as a sanitary device. The original bakelite mouthpieces
could not be boiled and sterilized in hot water, so they needed glass ones.
Also seen in the photo is a pencil holder advertising device for a cleaning
and pressing service. Click here to see
the mouthpiece offered in the 1920 American Electric catalog. The
mouthpiece shown here that I reproduced is nearly identical to the one
that American Electric offered in 1920.