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There was an auction house located in New York which had several lots of corkscrews up for auction. There were some interesting lots, but I held back on many of them because the shipping cost alone to get a lot of about 10 vintage Champion bar mounted corkscrews shipped to me would be pretty cost prohibitive. I was able to win the one lot that I was interested in. There were several nice bar mounted corkscrews, a Lund Lever, two interesting corkers, as well as some bycatch. The last picture shows the bycatch. I know that one is a vintage shotgun shell reloader, but I'm not sure what the other tool is for. Possibly a cherry pitter? If you think you know the answer, leave a comment.     
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We recently took a little trip to Jefferson, TX. It was a nice little town with at least 12 antique store/malls. Unfortunately we left without any corkscrews. Sadly this has become a common occurrence. We found a few corkscrews, but nothing rare and way overpriced. One mall did have 2 mounted displays of corkscrews, but again, way overpriced. I did however win some nice corkscrews on some of the usual auction sites this past month. First is a nice carved stag horn with carved deer head and antlers, an ivory pocket utensil set with unusual cross engraving to the handles, Thomason corkscrew, and a nice brass Merritt bar screw.        The April ICCA auction ended a few weeks ago and while I didn't have anything listed for sale, I did end up purchasing this lovely pair of 2 pillar corkscrews. The one on the left has an interesting inscription on the handle. "Keep to Dollis". The definition of Dollis is "Also called: dolly bird, dollybird old-fashioned, slang, mainly British an attractive and fashionable girl, esp one who is considered to be unintelligent." Could this have been a bachelor party gift? Would the fiancee not have been insulted? If you have any idea what the meaning could have been, leave a comment.   This past month I won a few corkscrews, some of which may be Best Six contenders. The first is a ladies legs corkscrew with rare advertising plates, a stag horn corkscrew marked Williamson, a rare hexagonal wood handled corkscrew featuring intricate Sterling silver endcaps depicting various vices, a nice Lund lever corkscrew, and a Shamrock bar mounted corkscrew.            I've finally received the lot that I recently won on Ebay with a mystery roundlet corkscrew with an unknown engraving for a mere $0.99 and the mystery of the engraving is now solved. This is an early advertising piece marked "BARTHOLOMAY ROCHESTER". Bartholomay was a pre-prohibition brewery operating in Rochester, NY. The corkscrew itself was produced in Germany based on the markings on the shank.   So far, I haven't added many corkscrews to the collection in 2023. In fact, I have a total of 3 new arrivals to the collection for 2023 so far. All three of which are Ebay finds, the first being a small boars tusk corkscrew with Sterling endcap, followed by a German Sterling pocket corkscrew with floral sheath, and finally an interesting advertising roundlet with built in bottle opener advertising "Compliments Jos Seagrams & Sons Limited, Seagrams Whiskies, Waterloo, Canada ELLIS BROS. TORONTO"   Speaking of engraved roundlets, I managed to win another one on Ebay with a winning bid of $0.99. It's somewhat of a mystery as the engraving wasn't described or clearly pictured. Could it be personalized for the previous owner or some kind of advertising? Either way, the price was right. I'll post an update once it arrives. Stay tuned; I do have a few other interesting corkscrews on the way which I'll be posting soon.  
    Here are the final additions to the collection for 2022. A large lot of perfume corkscrews including a gold gilt tortoise shell example as well as some monogrammed ones, three nice carved corozo nut corkscrews, folding medicine spoon corkscrew etc.    I won a nice looking Safety corkscrew on eBay. Not that I necessarily need another Safety corkscrew, but it was a pretty good price, so why not? Unfortunately this one died on 9-16-22. The seller sent me a refund and let me keep the broken corkscrew. Not a total loss, but I would have rather had it show up in one piece. Be sure to pack these heavy bar mounted corkscrews well because they have a tendency to break during shipping.   Its been years, and I mean several years, since I've found a decent corkscrew in an antique store. So many years that I've pretty much written off the possibility of finding any type of great corkscrew, but I'm happy to say that my streak of bad luck with antique finds has finally come to an end. We recently took a little trip to nearby Abilene, TX. A fairly small town with a handful of antique stores. It became clear that there hadn't been a fellow corkscrew collector in town for some time because not only did I find some great corkscrews, but also some really great prices. My first find of the trip was a beautiful painted Syroco clown which I found within 2 minutes of walking into the store. The painted version of the clown is my favorite of all of the full-bodied Syroco corkscrews. How could I resist purchasing another one? and at only $50 it was a steal considering that I sold one of these clowns several years ago for $1,400. Although the market for Syroco corkscrews isn't as strong as it once was. At the next antique store I found a Napier bar shaker for a reasonable $15 and then a pewter gnome miner at another antique store for $8. If my fellow collectors are reading this, just know that there are still great finds out there. They may not be common, but it is nice when you finally find one.   Corkscrews weren't the only finds of the trip. I also bought an orange "Blendo" pitcher and drink set for the vacation home (not pictured) as well as these two girls at a feed store. Meet Olive Tapenade and Kalamata. These two chickens are Olive Eggers which will lay dark green eggs in a few months once they're mature enough. They are a welcome addition to my flock of chickens.    |
James ZalaznikI'm constantly adding new corkscrews to my collection. Any new finds as well as articles which may be of interest to corkscrew collectors will be posted here. Archives
May 2023
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