The flask : Your boozy buddy who is always there for you anytime you need a quick nip of Bourbon dynasty or to discreetly spike yourcoffee . It ’s a authentic model of dependableness . But as slowly as it is these days to pick up the perfect flask made just for you , it was n’t always that mode . It claim many class to hone this symbol of illicit imbibing .
The flaskful , in one form or another , has subsist for C and has gone by many names . The word “ flask”originatedat some point between the mid-1300s to the mid-1500s , and likely derived from the medieval Latin flasco ( think container or bottle)—but that ancient flask was nothing like the contoured watercraft we make love and love today . Here , a abbreviated but complete account of everyone ’s favorite clandestined container .
The Flask’s Earliest Ancestors
In the beginning , there was the wineskin , a vessel fashioned from beast bladder cure with beeswax and used to transport liquidness — often wine-coloured — from one place to another . Wineskins were must - have accouterment that were so ubiquitous , that they garnered mentions as far back as Homer ’s epic poems and , subsequently , in Shakespeare ’s play . InHenry IV , for example , Hal ( or Prince Harry ) naughtily awakens Falstaff from a deep sleep by squirting him in the face with wine from a wineskin . Fun fact : Though the wineskin is more or less lost to the backbone of meter , its basic design endures inside your favorite boxed-in vino .
The relatively unprocessed wineskin was one of the first portable vessels of its kind , making it a removed ancestor of the advanced day hip flask , but the handy air hole brother we know today is actually more nearly have-to doe with topowder flask or hornscarried by military man . Up until the mid- to late-19th hundred , soldierscommonly carried a container filled with gunpowder on a string around their necks on the field . Often made from metallic element , staghorn or leather , the powder flask ’s spout was narrow and used to pour gunpowder like a shot down a rifle ’s muzzle — or booze down a pharynx . soldier soon realized that the flask had potential beyond the battleground , and knavish civilians soon followed suit , filling them with alcoholic beverage .
The Pocket Flask Is Born
The flaskful did n’t extend to the zenith of its practicality and commercial-grade ingathering until one very important invention in the seventeenth century : pockets . Around the same clock time , distillation also gained a commercial-grade foothold throughout Europe . With the newfound rest of acquiring pot likker , drinkers needed a tool that made it every bit wanton to transport and hide it — enter the straight precursor to the modern twenty-four hour period hip flaskful : the sack flask .
The production and availability of these newfangled sidekicks skyrocket in the following years . They often took the shape of a flattened oval and could be find on any British blue blood worth his vest . During the Victorian era , it was n’t strange to find ornate pouch flasks fashion out of precious alloy , or a combination of glass and precious metal . But it did n’t take long for more humble variations on these pecker to find their way into the hands of ordinary European citizen and stateside imbiber .
Toward the end of the Industrial Revolution , in the early to mid-1800s , the glass industry in the U.S. explode and glass flasks were used to not only carry a healthy measure ofwhiskey , but also to communicate a financial statement , often a political one . Somehistorical flasks — as they ’re known to collectors — have American imagination like eagle and flags , as well aspresidentialportraits . These politically fuel flasks were produce throughout the Civil War , during which they advertise the Union , presidential prospect or other American progeny , like the structure of therailroad .
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Prohibition Skyrockets the Flask to Fame
One of the most crucial events in the evolution of the flask was Prohibition . Though it was meant to improve the moral standing of American citizens , this 13 - year - long enforced juiceless spell had exactly the paired gist , further secret cocktail consumption . It also helped make flaskful - makers some serious cash .
Allegedly , more flask were sold within the first six calendar month of the Great Experiment than in the intact decade prior . And even though spirits stores shut down and it should have been almost insufferable to procure alcoholic drink , all a athirst flapper had to do was take the air into a chemist’s to get a flask full of liquor . Thanks to a few unexpended loopholes in the Volstead Act , sure distilleries were allowed to stay on operational during the national dry go and Doctor of the Church could prescribe a generous dosage of “ medicine . ”
Those without prescriptions , however , had to get even more clever when hiding their hootch . The flask itself was not enough , so people hid their flasks in object like Bible and tv camera — some of which are on display in the National Constitution Center ’s display , The acclivity and Fall of Prohibition . It was during this clock time that the flask finally morphed into the perfectly concealable contraband brother we have with us today .
scotty1954/Ebay
flask were so democratic in the unlawful drinking culture that some states take measures to keep them out of the hands of parch citizen . The state of Indiana even plump so far as to ban the sale ofcocktail shakersand hip flasks .
Long Live the Flask
Nowadays , flasks are not as necessary as they were during Prohibition , but they remain a symbol of nerveless and covert drinking . Plenty of hoi polloi still habituate flasks to sneak their favored libation into place it ’s not permit , be it ball game , concert venues or movie theater — and one C of retailers have start out in on theaction — from specialised companies like Flask.com to big box shop like Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart . There are also artisanal flask producer likeJacob Bromwell , an almost 200 - year - old Indiana household goodness God Almighty , which sells a 100 percent copper Great American Flask , base on an original 1819 aim .
Instead of staghorn , copper or sterling flatware , most modern flaskful are made from ultra - durable unsullied steel — or even plastic . The invention of charge card in the twentieth 100 proved to be a turning item in the hip flask ’s evolution , go to thecreation of flasksthat are at once undetectable in scanners and disposable . Some pot liquor companies even choose to bypass the middleman and deal their spirits in these plastic flask — now that ’s innovation . But away from the textile from which it ’s made , the flask ’s basic functionality and plan have n’t changed much over the past one C . Many still serve as a means of expression , emblazoned with sports squad mascot or political messages , like the historical flasks of the mid-1800s , as well as less divisive illustration likeadorable pot cats .
All hip flask - carry folk should keep in judgment that dribble this ready to hand drunkenness accouterment is n’t always heady . In most public place they are illegal , thanks to open container law — being catch with a flask could lead to a tidy mulct or , perhaps , more serious aftermath . But it ’s hard to deny the greatness of the flask when you ’re discreetly taking the edge off an uncomfortable holiday drop with kinfolk or slugging back some whiskey in front of acampfire . While you could legally grease one’s palms a bottleful at a liquor store or a measurement of your best-loved liquor at any prevention , it ’s nice to now and then raise a flask in anamnesis of scofflaws preceding .
A rare antique Tiffany & Co. pocket flask from around 1872.|Courtesty Deja vu Antiques/rubylane
Courtesy Library of Congress
Lovro Rumiha/Flickr
