It's been a good start to the year. The majority of these were purchased from auction houses while the carved alligator was an Ebay find. All of the rarities are in the bottom left corner of the first picture and include a stag horn with carved alligator and Sterling silver crown, rare gasoline pump corkscrew, 2 Swedish direct pressure corkscrews (these came from two separate auction houses, I just happened to end up winning both of them within a week of each other), and a French single lever corkscrew. Certainly some Best Six contenders, and there's some more on the way to the collection. Stay tuned for more corkscrews.
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It's been a great year for corkscrew collecting and I have been lucky enough to have acquired some truly amazing pieces. Nearly all of the corkscrews below are in perfect condition.
I was lucky enough to add several unique corkscrews to my collection in 2024, so much so that coming up with my Best Six for the year proved to be somewhat difficult. I pulled 14 corkscrews which I felt would be worthy examples for my Best Six. Some of these were no brainers to make my Best Six, but deciding which pieces would take the last spots took some time. Stay tuned; the final result is coming soon.
I always wonder why some collectors start posting their Best Six for the year in December when there's still more time in the year for corkscrew collecting. It happened last year and this year as well where the last corkscrew that I acquired in the year managed to make it into my Best Six for the year. I purchased this very rare figural single lever corkscrew with unusual lower brush from a Belgium auction house and it is definitely going to make my 2024 Best Six. It came with this fancy box which I don't believe has anything to do with the corkscrew. If anyone has any information on the box then let me know. All that I have been able to find on Star-Apic is that it is a Belgium based software company. The box does seem somewhat old and has intricate inlaid woods and mother of pearl.
I ended up purchasing this lot of interesting antique items. Although there are a few T handle corkscrews in the lot, the real winner is the Copley bow in the center. Unfortunately it is in worse condition than I realized. It appears to have been buried and dug up. Not a bad metal detector find though.
As the corkscrews continue to pile up, I decided it was time to move some of the smaller items to a pen display case. An idea I got from a fellow collector who mainly collects Sterling silver roundlets. So, here we go; a somewhat elegant pen/corkscrew display case which was immediately filled to the brim with roundlets, perfume corkscrews, and peg and worm corkscrews. More rare corkscrews are on their way to the collection, so come back soon.
During my Florida trip, I was continuously checking my bids on several lots that were coming up at auction on the day that I was traveling. While I was outbid on all but one of the lots that I was interested in, the lot that I did win ended up having a phenomenal corkscrew jewel. All of the corkscrews in the lot are keepers and many are somewhat rare and the more common ones all seem to have markings, but the crown jewel of the lot is the Charles Hull Le Presto patent located in the center of the first picture. This is the second Le Presto that I have owned and this version is nearly immaculate. For those who have never handled one of these, in order to use it, you start by pulling the pin on the side of the handle which releases the screw. Once extended you would push the handle down toward the cork which would cause the screw to spin into the cork. Once fully inserted, the pin locks the screw in place so that the cork can be extracted. It's a highly unusual mechanism which I'm sure did not work well which is why examples like this are so rare and highly sought after.
Last month I won several lots from an auction house in Canada. Soon after those arrived, I noticed that the same auction house had a couple more corkscrew lots coming up. So I placed some bids and ended up winning several more lots which were waiting for me once I returned home from Florida. A pretty good haul with several Thomason's, Heeley double levers, Lund levers, etc. There's more goodies on the way, so check back soon.
We recently returned home from an eight day vacation in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Like usual, we ate lots of good food, visited the sights and museums as well as looking for corkscrews. There weren't many antique stores in the Miami area and the only antique store that we visited in Fort Lauderdale was a small showroom with a small selection of restored antique items ranging in price from $2k to $35k. So we went to a neighboring town where rents were cheaper; and where are rents the cheapest? Directly next to the dump. Notice the dump truck in the second picture. Anyway, out of three antique malls we were able to find some corkscrews and even some worth purchasing. We bought a bottle shaped roundlet with rare advertising for "Jacob J. Pfeffer Tippe Canoe Double Fire Copper Whiskey" as well as a Chip Chop also with rare advertising for "Ben Danbaum, Inc.
It was only a few months ago that I acquired a large oversized art piece of a can opener with corkscrew and now I've just outdone myself with an even larger piece. This one is a heavy cast piece resembling a common French Perille corkscrew; pictured with a real one for scale. If anyone has any information on this piece then please let me know as I've never seen one like it. I would imagine that this is a somewhat never creation, I.E. 2000+, possibly made in India? It doesn't seem like it would have been made as a home decor item as its a little too large and heavy. Could it have been an item produced for wine & liquor store displays?; that also seems a little improbable. Was this a custom one off piece?; it's possible, but a good amount of work went into creating this, so I would imagine that there would have at least been several produced. Anyway, this is now officially the largest "corkscrew" in the collection.
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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
January 2025
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