Blog
Welcome to Corkscrew Appraisals blog page, thank you for taking time to visit this new corkscrew related website. This blog will be regularly updated with corkscrew facts, finds and news. Visitors are also welcome to contribute information to the blog, if you are interested then please get in touch.
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Norman Wright's Corkscrew Story. - 01/08/2014 Hi Steve, I have already done a ‘who are we’ in the Worme but here are a couple of paras. for you as requested. Having purchased a house in France in the late 80’s we found ourselves visiting broncantes, antiquaires and depot vente regularly but buying nothing – we must start a collection – what could that be. Our interest in wine had grown, we love visiting vineyards and tasting what was on offer so we decided that we should collect corkscrews. At that time we thought that they were small and easily transported, plentiful, cheap and no-one else would be collecting, how wrong could we have been on almost... Read More |
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A relative of the early French piece in the last blog. - 12/11/2013 Here is an early French corkscrew offered for sale in the last ICCA auction. It has similar features to the piece in the last blog article. It has a similar but heavier worm, stronger, possibly the reason more examples are found. This piece never reached it's reserve and ended at around £180, another sign of prices falling, surely this piece has a value higher than that it achieved at auction? The image below shows the handle in more deta... Read More |
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The Second "half price" purchase!! - 12/10/2013 Well it didn't take too long to aquire the second "half price" corkscrew for my collection. This is only the second piece in my collection that's not British and it's a keeper for me so I must consider it a good piece. This corkscrew is all Steel and very early in date, early 18th century at the latest. I managed to buy this example for less than £400, which I believe reflects it's current market value. Now 5 years ago the price would have been much higher, I was personally offered an example when travelling in France for nearly double this price and the piece had a broken worm....another sign of a downward trend in prices over recent years?? ... Read More |
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The First of Many?? - 11/26/2013 Well it didn't take too long to aquire the first "half price" corkscrew for my collection, a very nice 18th century pocket piece. English in origin, this piece is all steel with a great patina. The price paid was less than £100, is this corkscrew a further sign of prices dropping? We can't take one piece in isolation but I do intend to build my case using pieces I personally aquire over the coming months. ... Read More |
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What to make of the ICCA Auction..November 2013. - 11/25/2013 I have been watching the latest ICCA Auction with great interest, this sale was number 13, was it unlucky 13?? I am not sure the results will look positive for the organisers, personally I think interest in corkscrew collecting is gradually dying. Are the more mature collectors who over the last few years have been seen to disperse of their collections being replaced by new collectors who have the same deep pockets and passion? I have seen a fraction of new collectors enter the market compared to collectors leaving the market. I could name 10 large collections at least that have been sold in recent years and it's my opinion that other collectors are struggling to... Read More |
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John Davis's Corkscrew Story. - 11/06/2013 I'm afraid I haven't anything very interesting to say about how I started collecting. Carole bought me one for Christmas, and some years later I saw another in an antique shop. I started researching them, through Peter Coldicott's book and the Shires book, then the Watney's book and I was hooked! Very soon I met Steven and Jane Webb at Christies, and that was that. I'm afraid I don't have access to my corkscrews over here, so I can't send you a picture - but it's not very exciting anyway, just a plain horn handled straight pull. ... Read More |
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.jpg "Robert Smith's Corkscrew Story.")
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Robert Smith's Corkscrew Story. - 11/06/2013 I got the urge to collect antique corkscrews after I inherited a plain, horn handled straight-pull from my late maternal great-aunt, around 1990-92. She had been living with her mother (my great-grandmother) and inherited all of her possessions when she passed away, and I assume the corkscrew had been purchased from new in the mid-late 1800s, as it had apparently always been in their... Read More |
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Dave Daker's Corkscrew Story - 11/06/2013 I got interested in corkscrews after reading an article about the “Christian Brothers Winery” in a wine magazine. This would have been in late 1979 or early 1980. The story mentioned that the Cellar Master, Brother Timothy, had a collection of around 1400 corkscrews. I had been interested in wine for a number of years but had never heard of anybody collecting corkscrews and had no idea of how to find any. In 1980 I went to England to visit an aunt and mentioned my interest in looking for old corkscrews. My aunt opened a kitchen drawer and pulled out a four-finger pull corkscrew and said “like ... Read More |
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Chris Barge's Corkscrew Story. - 11/06/2013 As a young child I was taken round the country house sales in Suffolk by my father who furnished his house with antiques and also collected china. In 1983 I moved to Inverness to work and wanted to resurrect my childhood interest in antiques. I started by looking at scientific instruments and purchased a wood barreled Dolland telescope for £110 which then successfully sold for £1100. Realising that this type of collectable was very scarce I looked around for something smaller and more available to buy and that's how I came to collect buy/sell corkscrews. My first purchase was in about 1985 at the Meadowbank stadium antique fair in Edin... Read More |
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Davide Chionna's Corkscrew Story. - 09/27/2013 In 1987, when me and Pauline got married, we spent our honey moon in Maldives islands. There we met a couple and start spending time together. One day, while friendly talking on the beach, this friend told me he was a collector of corkscrews. As you can imagine i have not been impressed nor suddenly involved but, been an extimator of antiks, i wondered which feeling can be transmit collecting just a simple tool such as a corkscrew! How could be possible for a man to be involved in a so simple and classic tool. I honestly told him i really guessed which kind of interest he was founding in a simple tool, considering they are mainly all the... Read More |
