Compendium of Bar Corkscrew

By Wayne Meadows
Bar corkscrews, mounted corkscrews, automatic corkscrews -whatever you choose to call them -have long been an enigma in the corkscrew-collecting world. While a few collectors with a bent for the mechanical have found these ingenious pieces of machinery interesting, even fascinating, even they have often shunned them. The reasons some have given for overlooking these corkscrews centered around their shear bulk, awkwardness and difficulty of display. Then there were many who might have overlooked these perceived shortcomings, but suffered from a common misconception that aside from the massive, but exquisite, English brass Eclipse, there were really only three bar corkscrews anyway -the Champion, the Yankee and the Quick and Easy -so what was there to collect? And, finally, there were those collectors who, having little affinity, interest or curiosity for the mechanical, were quite intimidated by the mysteries concealed within those imposing brass or cast iron carcasses. So, with these real or imagined handicaps, is it any wonder bar corkscrews have lingered in the backwaters of corkscrew collecting for so long?
ED: Kitsilano (2001), 22 x 28 cm, 280 pages, hardcover, ISBN: 0968929400