I've always had a particular interest in bar screws. These pieces are large, heavy and capable of opening several bottles of wine a minute. There are multiple moving parts and unique mechanisms in most of these corkscrews.
This is one of the most common American bar mounted corkscrews. In fact, it is still being produced today with very few changes from the original versions. The one one the left has black paint which today leaves a unique patina not often found on these corkscrews. The one on the right is somewhat harder to find due to the name plaque. These plaques often advertise the distributor of the corkscrew and sometimes include advertisements for brands of alcohol.
This art deco version of the Champion corkscrew is extremely rare. There are very few times when the makers of the Champion corkscrews changed the design of the body, but for a brief period they made a few different versions of this art deco design. This piece is in perfect condition.
This corkscrew marked The Yankee No.1 was manufactured by the Arcade Manufacturing Co., patented by R. Gilchrist, June 25, 1907; patent #857,992.
This corkscrew marked Yankee No.7 was also manufactured by the Arcade Manufacturing Co. and has some obvious differences from the version above.
This is a very unusual bar screw produced in Argentina marked MEFA, MARCO REGISTRADA, INDUSTRIA ARGENTINA. This is the only example of this piece that I have seen. The piece seems to be modeled after the Champion corkscrew, but has some obvious differences including the handle and rough/industrial body.
This is a Rotary Eclipse bar screw. Made in England and patented by F. Marwood on March 26, 1885. Truly one of the most elegant bar screws ever produced. This massive corkscrew also has a very unique mechanism.
This bar screw marked Acme was manufactured in England by Gaskell & Chambers, Ltd. English patent 11,104, W. Vaughan, August 15, 1887. This corkscrew is really unique due to the hammer head like shape where the mechanism is stored.
This bar screw marked Favorite was patented by Charles Morgan of Freeport, Illinois on March 14, 1899 and was assigned to The Arcade Company who manufactured this and other bar screws. This particular example is very rare due to the unusual single lever bottle clamp instead of the double handled type found on most other bar screws. Another very unique feature of this corkscrew is that it seems to be copper plated (although tarnished, you can see parts where the tarnish has been worn away showing the copper color beneath). This copper plating is highly unusual and I have yet to see any other examples of other bar screws produced by Arcade which have the same variation.
This corkscrew marked Cyklop was a DRGM registered design number 926,839 of September 30, 1925 and was produced by the German firm of Gerhard Frings & Co. This is one of my favorite bar screws; it features an open design allowing you to see the mechanism which is normally internal on bar screws. The other side has a built in foil cutter.
This bar screw marked Original Safety was produced in England and features a beautiful design. There are a few variations of this corkscrew including the one below.
This variation of the Original Safety bar screw has a few differences. First of all, they dropped the Original marking, but the main and most notable difference is that this version uses a clamp instead of screws to affix it to your bar.
This bar screw marked Handy was designed by inventor H. Tscherning in May 19, 1903 and made by Arcade Manufacturing Co. American patent 728,519; marked HANDY MAR 14, 1889. Very cool and fairly rare, this piece is in nearly perfect condition.