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I was fortunate enough to acquire several nice corkscrews in November. The three on the left were from my fellow collector/friend Josef and include an Ivory handled T handle corkscrew with Sterling silver end caps, some kind of tusk T handled corkscrew (possibly walrus), and a stag handled corkscrew with Sterling silver end caps. The three on the top right were eBay finds and include an either ivory or boars tusk corkscrew with carved goat head with glass eyes, a very unusual Sterling silver cellarman corkscrew with a unique engraving design, and a grotesque face man roundlet corkscrew. The final one in the bottom right corner was from ICCA auctions and is a rare T. Curley patent corkscrew. All are welcome additions to the collection. I feel like I say this every year when I start receiving other collector's Best Sixes for the year when there is still a full month left to acquire more corkscrews, but you never know what will turn up in December. Stay tuned, a crown jewel of the collection should be arriving any day now and it will without a doubt be making my Best Six for the year.     
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My girlfriend and I took a 4 day trip to Indianapolis near the end of October. We explored the city which was full of a mix of old, art deco, and new architecture, visited the state capital building as well as a few museums and of course ate all of the good food including the famous horseradish shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo Steak House. Oh and we did visit a large antique mall which used to be some sort of factory; there were a few corkscrews, but unfortunately nothing worth buying. Fortunately there were corkscrews purchased online waiting for me when I got back.          There were lots of good finds in October including an Ivory handled Excelsior corkscrew, 2 silver overlaid tusk handled corkscrews, a marked Rodgers & sons corkscrew, a carved Indian head corkscrew, carved lion head corkscrew, and a Sterling roundlet corkscrew.      My girlfriend and I took a short weekend trip to Granbury (about an hour 45 minute drive from Dallas) in October. We stayed at an Airbnb right on the main square and happened to be there during Octoberfest weekend. We ate at all of the best restaurants and even made it to a few antique malls where I surprisingly found a corkscrew worth purchasing (a rarity these days).      It's been a while since I've done any blog posts, so I'm going to try to get caught up. I had these nice finds on eBay in September including a very nice Sterling silver handled decorative corkscrew, a couple Syroco bottle openers and corkscrew as well as a gentleman's grooming kit with some interesting family crests.     We were gone for two and a half weeks; flew into Paris for a few nights before heading to the ICCA meeting in Romania for a few nights, and finally to Burgundy for a little over a week. We had a great time in both France and Romania and got to see several old and new friends, eat lots of great food and wine as well as seeing (and buying) a lot of corkscrews along the way.           If you've never read the story about how our corkscrew addiction started then I will include it below, but during a recent trip to Paris, we visited the store where it all happened. The store has been in business since 1820 and is somewhat well known. We told the corkscrew origin story to the young store clerks who were less than enthused and they directed us to some less than interesting corkscrews that were for sale. Anyway, no corkscrews were purchased this trip, but it was fun to visit the store where it all started. It all started on a romantic date to Paris, France in the fall of 1986. Nancy Phillips and David Zalaznik roamed the streets of Paris darting in and out of shops and restaurants. At one point they entered a small store full of boxes with kitchen gadgets. It seemed more like a hardware store than a kitchen shop but they browsed anyway. The store clerk acted like he didn’t understand English then joked about the TV show “Dallas” and finally sold them two corkscrews. David was heard to say “Wouldn’t this be a neat thing to collect”. Later that evening David proposed to Nancy on the open deck of the Eiffel Tower. Ever so romantic but Nancy, the shrewd accountant responded “I’ll have to think about that”. So they returned to USA with a collection of two corkscrews and one unused diamond ring. Nancy finally did accept David’s proposal and in August 1987 they were married. They have been collecting corkscrews ever since. Wondering what the 2 corkscrews were? A French made Zigzag corkscrew and a French wood barreled corkscrew.      For the longest time I thought that we were the only corkscrew collectors in Dallas. That was, until I sold an item on ICCA auctions several years ago and was surprised to see that the address on the invoice was only a few miles away from my home. Intrigued, I sent a message to the buyer and invited him over pick up the item in person and to have a drink down in the wine cellar. We talked about corkscrews and got to know each other over some good wine. We kept in touch over the years and I was recently invited over to his house to see his new wine cellar and corkscrew displays. His collection consists mainly of Sterling silver roundlets and totals 150 or so corkscrews.    We recently returned from a trip to Mexico. There weren't any antique stores there, but I did have some nice corkscrews waiting for me when I got back. First is a beautiful carved ivory Corkscrew with Sterling end caps and decoration. Next is a phenomenal carved dragon corkscrew with Sterling silver tail followed by two boars tusk corkscrews with Sterling end caps; the first with a carving of a deer and the second with carvings of grape leaves.      Not everything that I purchase is a corkscrew. Oftentimes you have to purchase some bycatch (as I like to call it) in order to get that one rare corkscrew which happens to be in the lot. Usually it's something mundane like some old bottle openers, but occasionally you end up with some bizarre items. I haven't come across a large quantity of items lately, but certainly some of the most unique items that I've ever purchased. We have a cheese tray with a deer foot handle (should turn some heads at our next party), a deer foot knife sharpener, carved cane handle, carved bottle stopper, and an interesting pair of mother of pearl binoculars.     |
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
December 2025
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