December 5th 2008
Corkscrewing from 5.30 a.m. - 10.30 p.m.
A few weeks ago I agreed to visit a long term collector in Leicester who
wanted to sell me his collection. After checking the diary I noticed that
the Newark antique fair was coming up, I'd not been to Newark for ages
so I decide a double header day of corkscrewing was definitely in order.
I was on the road early yesterday for my marathon corkscrewing day,
5.30 a.m early to be precise. It was cold, wet & miserable just as
forecast the night before. Stocked up with two flasks, a giant packed
lunch & choc bars galore I was more than ready for the day ahead.
I made it to Newark just after 9.00 & the queues were gone, hopefully
the corkscrews hadn't. I struck lucky in the first building when I noticed
an interesting French rack amongst some other corkscrews. The
others were mostly English patents, all overpriced but the rack was well
within my limit. Same building, a little further down & a cork grip direct
pull was quickly snapped up. Sadly, the weather had clearly put many
stall holders off, the overall fair was probably about half the size of the
busy summer fairs that I'd previously gone to. Nonetheless, I kept
finding bits & bobs, a Chinnock, a loop handled champagne tap, a
German rack were all purchased at great prices. Throughout the day I
met up with sellers that I hadn't seen for ages, it was great to see them
& catch up. One of these guys pulled out a Hipkins lever rack for me to
look at, it had some pitting, nothing too bad, mostly on the collar, nicely
marked, full worm, good action & the price seemed pretty reasonable,
one to consider. Later in the day I found a very nice silver plated picnic
& after a trip back to the car to empty the bag & tuck into the nosh I
was back out once again for a slow walk around. I found a few extras, a
horn handled Codd corkscrew, a Deco type French direct & a cream
crackers peg & worm. Part one of the trip complete & back to the car -
destination Leicester.
After a slowish cross-country drive I arrived at the collector's house just
outside of Leicester & was warmly welcomed with a coffee. After a good
chat, we methodically went through his 8 giant boxes crammed full of
corkscrews. One by one he pulled them out & one by one I made him
an offer. Each time I made him an offer with the exception of a couple
of occasions he said "yes, that's fine". What a super chap!
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It went something like this "Oh yes
this one, I remember picking this
one up in the Lanes at Brighton
during a business trip in 1989, such
a shame about the broken worm". I
replied, "Yeah, a real shame about
the worm, still maybe I can get it
fixed, I'll give you £200.00 for your
Roper" & he said "Yes, that's fine".
5 minutes later...."My wife spotted
this one. We were holidaying in
Monaco, a beautiful trip, stunning
scenery & with culinary delights to
die for. Whilst there we took a day
trip to Nice & she noticed this one in
a small shop of bric-a-brac just by
the main square. I was taken by the
unusual tiger's head". "Oh yeah,
wow that's so cool. I'll give you
£50.00 for your Perille L'Express" &
he said "Yes, that's fine".
If only! I did however make him an
offer on about 100 or so
corkscrews that filled an oversize
bag. Nothing special to report but
plenty of good pieces for resale.
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