Ronald Reagan's Corkscrews

Occasionally a corkscrew owned by a celebrity will come up for auction. Rarely will you see a corkscrew that was owned by a US president. In September of 2016, Christie's auction house sold many personal items owned by former president Ronald Reagan. I was interested in one lot in particular.

While none of the items in the lot are particularly rare, the fact that they belonged to a US president made these otherwise common items extremely collectable. Of the corkscrews themselves, one is a very common waiters corkscrew. The other is a nice stag handled corkscrew made by John Hasselbring in New York. Other pieces include a bottle opener, jigger, and stir stick all of which may have been part of a boxed set at one time.

I tuned in to the live auction as it was about to begin. Prepared to bid a fairly high amount for the lot, my excitement quickly subsided as soon as the auction began. The first lot which consisted of some fairly basic walking sticks sold for over $6,000. The second lot, a leather umbrella holder, sold for over $9,000. I soon realised that every estimate in this auction would be shattered including the estimate of $1,000-$2,000 that was placed on the corkscrew lot. When the lot finally came up, the price shot up past my limit before I even had a chance to bid. In the end the lot sold for $5,250.

Fortunately for me, I already own several John Hasselbring corkscrews including some pictured below. However it remains unclear whether any of these were owned by a President.