A few weeks ago, we hosted a professional happy hour at our office which included tapas and plenty of wine, but also included a limited viewing of the corkscrew collection. At our office we have four framed corkscrew displays mounted on the walls as well as a couple extras that I brought in for the occasion. It didn't take long for the viewing to be turned into a fun game of guess the most valuable corkscrew. We asked roughly 40-50 people to guess the most valuable corkscrew out of the 14 below and not a single person guessed it. The most valuable (by a very high margin) is the one located in the center of the second picture with the single lever (top left of the first picture). The majority guessed the scrimshaw George Washington carved piece followed by the intricately carved dragon with Sterling silver tail followed by the skeptical few who thought it was the Weir's compound double lever. Almost every piece was guessed except for the most valuable which I thought was pretty interesting.
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As I stated in my last blog post, the lot of corkscrews that I purchased was pretty large. There are some quality pieces, but also plenty of not so great and more modern pieces. The most interesting piece(s) can be found in the last picture. A turned wood handled corkscrews with brush and archimedean worm marked Farrow & Jackson on the shank (as well as another marked Farrow & Jackson T handle on the top right of the last picture). Most corkscrews collectors are most likely familiar with the Farrow & Jackson name, but I was surprised to find it on a basic T handle corkscrew since the name is most often associated with more mechanical type corkscrews. Anyway in addition to the unusual Farrow & Jackson pieces there are also several Syrocco pieces as well as plenty of decent corkscrews in the lot. Unfortunately there wasn't an ultra rare piece hiding in the rubble, but not a bad buy overall. More great corkscrews on the way!
I'm just finishing up a week long vacation in Denver. As usual, we visited all of the museums, ate at all of the best restaurants, and searched most of the antique malls for corkscrews. Also, per usual, we found no corkscrews worth purchasing. Fortunately, like one of those tv shows that involves the host going on a fishing trip, we had a backup in case we didn't catch anything.
As pictured below; I purchased a large mixed lot of corkscrews from an auction house and it will be somewhat of a mystery as the majority of the corkscrews aren't pictured and/or visible. Anyway, I don't have high hopes that there will be some super rare corkscrew, but it will be fun to see what I got. These are waiting for me when I get back tomorrow and I also have some other nice corkscrews on the way to the collection. Stay tuned to see what I got. I've been too busy with tax season as well as some other projects that I have going on to post to the blog. Now that I'm pretty caught up, here's my latest finds from the past few months. The Hull Royal Club corkscrew in the center is sure to be a strong contender for my Best Six for 2024. Other notable examples include a boars rusk handle corkscrew with a relief carving of a monkey stealing a couple bottles of wine, an unusual wooden alligator carving, a stag handle corkscrew with deer carving. The Sterling silver roundlet is fairly interesting as well; I didn't realize until I actually handled it that all of the art nouveau decorations are actually all inscriptions including some initials and a date. Stay tuned, more rare corkscrews are arriving soon.
I've added yet another variation of the Anri drunk lamppost man to the collection. This version is a rare sailor variant that I won at auction for a really great price; I guess that nobody else saw it. Unfortunately I can't make out what port is written on his hat. Coincidentally, I sold the piece (below, center with the ashtray) today. It was a very unique piece, but I decided to let it go since it didn't have a corkscrew.
It's hard to ask for better corkscrews to be your first finds of the year. These two will certainly be best six contenders for the year. Both are made of carved whale tooth Scrimshaw. One is carved with shoulder length uniform bust of George Washington with ribbon banner below with carved inscription Cincinnatus Lucius Quinctus (name of the Roman patrician, statesman and military leader, for whom the American Revolutionary war officers Order of Cincinnatus was named) the other end is carved in the form of an eagle head. The second corkscrew is intricately carved into a cornucopia.
My first find of 2024 isn't actually a corkscrew and it didn't cost me anything. One of my neighbors was nice enough to gift me a few vintage trade catalog pages. Thank you Bill, these are welcome additions to the collection. I have seen these over the years in books and listed on eBay, but I have never owned any until now. If only the prices were still as good as they were back then.
Once we hit December 1st I started getting emails from fellow collectors showing their best six corkscrews for 2023 and I must admit that I found it a little odd since we had a whole month left to add more corkscrews to our collections for 2023, and possibly a best six contender. Although, from my experience, December is usually a pretty slow time for buying corkscrews. People are on holiday; the auction houses are on holiday, and there usually just isn't much out there. I have yet to finalize my best six for 2023, but will be doing so in the next few days.
I'm excited to report that I managed to acquire a best six contender just before the end of the year. It's a Christmas miracle! Arriving a few days before Christmas was this phenomenal boars tusk corkscrew with mechanical frame and a Sterling silver bear's head with ruby eyes. Stay tuned; my 2023 best six is coming soon as well as the first few corkscrews of 2024 which are sure to end up in next/this year's best six. My parents and I took a little trip to Phoenix over the holidays and I'm happy to report that on this trip I did in fact find and purchase a rare corkscrew at an antique mall. Before I get ahead of myself, the 3 corkscrews on the right were online purchases which were waiting once we got back home. That being said the corkscrew on the left was found in an antique mall in Scottsdale (near Phoenix) and is a fairly rare piece. Its an advertising piece with the advertising stamped into the handle and includes a bottle opener. The advertising is for CONTINENTAL DISTRIBUTING CO ; HY-LITE WINES & LIQUORS. This is the first corkscrew with this design that we've added to the collection. The other corkscrews include a near perfect condition Syroco boxer corkscrew, a tiny faceted/gold-gilt perfume corkscrew, and an ivory tusk corkscrew with a Sterling sliver end cap engraved with the year 1900; a fitting addition for the final corkscrews added to the collection for 2023.
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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
May 2024
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