Corkscrews

The corkscrew emerged as an indispensable domestic tool with the widespread adoption of the cork stopper in the 17th th century, but it was during the 19th th century that it became an object of careful craftsmanship — sometimes of silversmithing — designed to endure and to delight. England quickly established itself as the leading industrial producer, with makers such as Lund, Heeley and Thomason, whose double-lever and rack-and-pinion models remain benchmarks of the form. France, Germany and Italy simultaneously developed more ornamental variations, often intended to grace the sideboards of bourgeois households or to accompany travelling cases: pocket corkscrews with handles in horn, bone or solid silver, figurative models depicting figures or animals, helices sheathed in mother-of-pearl or ivory.

Materials vary according to the standing of the piece: steel for the mechanisms, brass for the housings and worm screws, silver for the handles or ceremonial fittings. Silver corkscrews typically bear hallmarks — in France the maker's mark and the title punch, in England the hallmarks with date letter — which allow them to be dated with precision and their origin identified.

A discerning collector will first examine the condition of the helix, which should show neither straightening nor cracking, as well as the smoothness of the mechanism on lever or rack-and-pinion models. The legibility of the hallmarks directly determines the value of a piece in precious metal, as does the presence of a maker's signature on patented models. Original assemblies, with no partial replacement of the handle or worm, remain the defining criterion for pieces of genuine quality.