A Guide to Corkscrews and other Wine Collectables 

For most of its history wine has been stored in wooden casks or barrels and in pottery jars.  It is known that the Greeks and Romans stoppered their vessels and it is assumed that the stopper was removed with a knife.  Wine bottles made an appearance in the 17th century and were mainly sealed with waxed linen secured by a wooden peg. The cork oak, Quercus suber, a native of Southern Europe and North Africa, with an exceptionally thick outer layer of bark, is cultivated in both Spain and Portugal. From the mid 18th century cork from the Iberian Peninsular commonly replaced wooden pegs.

Simple bottle screws, as they were first called, were used throughout the 18th century but the great period for the corkscrew was the 19th century; the first patent was taken out in London in 1795 by an English clergyman the Reverend Samuel Henshall. In the 100 years that followed at least a further 300 were registered.  Thousands of designs from all over the world have made the humble corkscrew hugely collectable.

Left and far right a pair of 1930's carved pinewood dog and cat corkscrews.  In the middle, again 1930's, French open framework corkscrew.  Expect to pay between £20-£30 for these types of corkscrew.

There is a whole glossary of terms relating to the corkscrew, noted below are just a few:

Archimedian Worm - a bladed spiral thread on a central core
Bladed Worm - a corkscrew thread that is broad forming an edge
Brush - set into one end of a handle, usually hog bristle, to clear debris from neck of bottle and for dusting off labels
Button - associated with Henshall type corkscrews. It is a circular plate just above the worm to aid extraction of the cork by compressing and turning it in the bottle.
Compound Lever - concertina mechanisms
D.R. - on German corkscrews an abbreviation for Deutsches Reich
Female-threaded Worm - the shaft screws up through the handle to extract the cork
Figurals - applied to some corkscrews with decorative handles
Peg and Worm - portable corkscrew.  When not in use the peg is inserted into the worm and can be inserted into the top of the worm to form a handle.

The Butlers/Waiters Friend corkscrew was invented by Carl Wienke who got a German patent in 1882 followed by French and British patents in 1883.  This single lever design is still in common use today as is the double winged lever type (pictured left) credited to H.S. Heeley and patented by him in Britain in 1888.