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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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My good friend and fellow corkscrew collector Josef L'Africain happened to be in Dallas last month and was able to squeeze some time out of his schedule to stop by and see the collection; or well most of it anyway. He sent me a few pictures once he returned home of some new corkscrews that he had just acquired and we quickly made a deal for this rare ivory tusk corkscrew with a floral carving and very rare 14K gold end caps. If any other collectors find their way to the Dallas area then send me a message; I'm always happy to give a tour of the growing collection.     Earlier this month there was an auction in Canada with several great lots which each featured several groups of rare corkscrews. I was fortunate enough to win all but one of the lots that I was interested in. As you can see there are lots of great pieces including several ladies legs including rare variants like the wavy legs and metal scaled legs, lots of peg & worm corkscrews, a few old pocket corkscrews, a 4-pillar mechanical with an obscure marking, and more! One of the more interesting pieces I discovered a few days later; a small advertising finger pull marked Kepler malt extract voice tabloids made with cocaine.         The title says it all. I saw this on eBay, made a fair offer and a week later it was here as a great addition to the collection. Will it make my Best 6 for the year? It's certainly a strong contender, but hopefully there will be some even better pieces before the year is over.  Earlier this month ICCA members gathered for the Annual General Meeting which was located in London this year. I was unfortunately unable to attend this year, but it looks like everyone had a great time and acquired some new corkscrews. To my surprise, soon after I was told that I had won the Frank MacDonald award for the most outstanding Best Six. Pictures of the Best Six in question are below. Hopefully I'll be able to top this Best Six in the future. So far, it's looking like 2024 will be a pretty good one.  Best 6 - 2023
A very interesting corkscrew turned up a few weeks ago at an auction house in the UK. A one of a kind Dutch silver double seal corkscrew. I don't recall ever seeing anything like it. But with any valuable corkscrew, its always a good idea to get a picture of the helix before bidding. I asked a week prior to the auction for a picture and got a response that they had added a picture to the catalog. A day before the auction, I ask again for a picture and they send me one showing that there is virtually nothing left of the helix, a very unfortunate revelation. With this in mind, I opted not to bid, but was somewhat surprised to see that it sold for so much. Hopefully, the buyer was aware of the condition. Nonetheless, it's still a very interesting corkscrew and would at least display well.   This is a big find, and I mean BIG. I was lucky enough to win this at auction for a staggering price. Let's just say that it was a low starting bid and I was the only bidder. Shown with an average can opener for scale. My guess is that the other potential bidders thought that this was a regular sized can opener, which are usually fairly worthless, or they were aware that it was a large art piece but thought that it was some cheap modern item. It is a Pop Art wall sculpture by Curtis Jere circa 1979 and even features the artist's signature and date. It's very heavy, well made, and in almost perfect condition. You can find several examples currently listed for sale ranging anywhere from $900-$3,500. I'm not sure what exactly this would sell for at auction or whether this would appeal more to art collectors or corkscrew collectors, but for now it will stay here in the collection, although I'm not quite sure where to put this thing.     I'm often contacted by people who have found my website who are interested in selling either one corkscrew or sometimes a whole collection, or who simply want some information about a corkscrew that they've acquired. I'm always happy to give my advice or make an offer. Earlier this year I was contacted by someone who had inherited an entire collection. It was a fairly large collection with several hundred pieces and several quality corkscrews. I would have offered to purchase the entire collection, but it was located in France and the shipping costs would have been cost prohibitive. After chatting with the seller for a while I highlighted about a dozen pieces that I was interested in and made a fair offer. I never heard back and figured that the seller had moved on. Eventually I received an email that they had decided to sell the collection with a French auction house. I bid on a few of the lots and ended up winning one lot. The lot contained three of the corkscrews that I was interested in. The first is a marked bronze Gagnepain figural corkscrew, next is an interesting whistle handled corkscrew, followed by a B. Lew patent prong puller corkscrew. I was interested in the whistle corkscrew mainly out of curiosity, so if you're interested, you may find it in the upcoming ICCA Auction.    Back in April we experienced a total solar eclipse, but that wasn't the only eclipse of 2024 because not long after I won this beautiful bar mounted Eclipse corkscrew at auction. These have long been one of my favorite bar mounted corkscrews. These large statement pieces are fairly rare and quite unique in their design and mechanism. Unfortunately, upon its arrival from the auction house, I tested it....and nothing. I have another one of these in the collection, so I know how these are suppose to work; you spin the handle in a continuous motion and the screw spins into the cork and retracts the cork and will then unscrew from the cork if you continue spinning. I opened up the corkscrew to investigate as well as referenced Compendium of Bar Corkscrews by Wayne Meadows and concluded that it was missing an important gear. My guess is that the gear broke at some point and was removed. I may get around to trying to get a new gear cast or possibly 3D printed some day, but until then, it's still a beautiful show piece. If any collector friends have any cost effective ways to get a new gear cast or printed then let me know.   I was lucky enough to win this rare bronze frame corkscrew depicting a Satyr with wings at auction. Initially I planned on reselling this piece, that was until it arrived and I saw how phenomenal the details of this piece are. So this one will become a permanent resident of the collection, at least until I acquire a duplicate.    |
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
March 2025
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