Bottle opener from the travel wardrobe trunk used by Cab Calloway: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An A.W. Company Limited bottle opener from the travel wardrobe trunk used by Cab Calloway. The cast iron, crown seal bottle opener is constructed from a single piece of molded metal. The inverted triangular top of the bottle opener has a flattened tab at the bottom, designed to remove to bottle caps, and the bar at the top has been flatted and features embossed text that reads [RD70] and [2661]. The text is divided by a pyramidal shape designed to give the opener leverage when lifting a bottle cap. The handle is solid, narrow, with slightly convex sides that terminate in wider area with a centered keyring hole at the bottom. Embossed text across the handle reads [A.W. CO. LTD.]. The back of the handle is identical to the front but has the text [DIRECT SUPPLY] embossed across the length of the handle.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: after 1924
• Manufactured by: Unidentified
• Distributed by: A.W. Company Limited, British
• Owned by: Cab Calloway, American, 1907 - 1994
• Type: bottle openers
• Medium: cast iron
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 3 × 1 7/16 × 3/8 in. (7.6 × 3.6 × 0.9 cm)
• Place made: England, Europe
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Band (Music)
• Topic: Conductors (Musicians)
• Topic: Cooking and dining
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Entertainers
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Object number: A2015.273.1.1.32
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Cabella Calloway Langsam
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.