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I have a display of bar mounted corkscrews in my bedroom and one day I was staring at the corkscrews displayed on the shelves and one stuck out like a sore thumb; it was a Quick and Easy, which is a great corkscrew that I really love, but this example has seen better days as most of the chrome plating was long since gone. The next morning I looked at my watchlist on ebay and saw that there was a near perfect example of a "New Unique" corkscrew ending later that day. While it is a different corkscrew, they are pretty much the same design as you can see from the picture, however not exactly the same...I'll post a picture once I'm able to get the new one to stand up on a flat surface (it took some adjusting to get it to stand up on the hand-scraped wood flooring). 
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A couple new ebay buys. The first is a massive tusk handled corkscrew with Sterling endcap. The other is a nice Syroco dog head corkscrew; who can resist adding another one to their collection? I knew that the tusk corkscrew was massive because the ebay listing showed it next to a soda can, but its hard to picture quite how large this corkscrew is. See the 2nd picture next to some other corkscrews for comparison. It's very heavy as well, weighing in at just over a pound. If only it was rhino horn, but I suspect that it's a buffalo horn. If you think I'm wrong then let me know in the comments. Either way, they're both welcome additions to the collection.   I purchased this unusual Anri "drunk lamppost man" (as they are usually referred as) corkscrew because it had an unusual variation that I've never seen. The variation was a glass ashtray built into the figure (pictured in the center). I pulled the other drunk lamppost men for comparison. These often have slight variations, but this new piece was decidedly different. Note that I believe the third one from the left has been modified/painted. I was also surprised to find a label with a US company on it since these Anri pieces were made in Italy. The bodies and paint colors all seem pretty similar, but the base is clearly different and somewhat crudely carved out for the ash tray. The head is also slightly different from your standard drunk lamppost man since it has a fez. The other variation is that it has no corkscrew, just an irremovable lamp and a bottle opener, so this piece may eventually be leaving the collection, but I had to buy it based on how unique it seemed. If you have any information on this variation then leave me a message.      As the title implies, I'm a little behind on blog posts, so get ready for a wave of content. A few months back I got a really good buy-it-now purchase on ebay. In fact, I don't think I've won a great buy-it-now auction in several years, but there it was....just listed, a perfect condition Israeli Pal-Bell corkscrew located in the UK for a mere $55. For reference these are rare pieces that normally fetch a few hundred at auction. As soon as I made the purchase, I knew that one way or another it would eventually end up in the collection of my friend Robert as I knew that he was actively searching for one. I shot him a message and we eventually came up with a fair trade and will be making the exchange at the upcoming ICCA AGM. What did I get in the trade? A beautiful carved stag horn corkscrew with a deer carving. I'll post pictures as soon as I receive it....or a few months down the line. Stay tuned.   I have plenty of Champion corkscrews in the collection already, but for around $20, who can resist buying one more? I won this one on a non-eBay auction site. Unfortunately it was not packed well enough and arrived broken. I received a refund and got to keep the item, so it's not all bad news. If you own a Champion corkscrew then it's now a little bit rarer. If you're ever shipping a bar mounted corkscrew then be sure to pack it really well because they have a tendency to break during shipping.   Earlier this month, there were a large number of lots of corkscrews up for auction. I was fortunate to win the majority of the lots that I was interested in. As you can see, there's a little bit of everything. The notable pieces include a corkscrew cane with gold gilding, an unusual Thomason corkscrew with unusual decorations to the barrel, some sheathed perfume corkscrews, some rare Sterling roundlets. The rarest corkscrew is a small ivory sheathed calendar corkscrew with faceted ring. The bottom unscrews so that the days of the week can be spun to match the current month. The most unusual corkscrew of the lot is a wood handled T corkscrew with what looks to be a folding/pivoting helix. Upon further inspection, my guess is that this is a homemade corkscrew. Although the helix looks as though it should pivot, it's fairly firm in place. If you have any information on this corkscrew then leave a comment.           I have some exciting new additions on the way to the collection, but in the meantime, here's some recent additions. First is a nicely carved bone handled corkscrew with brush, a Sterling silver Peruvian corkscrew, and a carved wood handled corkscrew with brush.  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.      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.   |
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 2023
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