Historical information

The design of the corkscrew may have been derived from the gun worm, which was a device from at least the early 1630s, used by men to remove unspent charges from a musket's barrel in a similar fashion.

The corkscrew is possibly an English invention, due to the tradition of beer and cider, and the 'Treatise on Cider' by John Worlidge in 1676 describes "binning of tightly corked cider bottles on their sides", although the earliest reference to a corkscrew is, "steel worm used for the drawing of Corks out of Bottles" from 1681.

In 1795, the first corkscrew patent was granted to the Reverend Samuel Henshall, in England. The clergyman affixed a simple disc, now known as the Henshall Button, between the worm and the shank. The disc prevents the worm from going too deep into the cork, forces the cork to turn with the turning of the crosspiece, and thus breaks the adhesion between the cork and the neck of the bottle. The disc is designed and manufactured slightly concave on the underside, which compresses the top of the cork and helps keep it from breaking apart.

The winged corkscrew, sometimes called a cork extractor, butterfly corkscrew, owl corkscrew, Indian corkscrew, or angel corkscrew, has two levers, one on either side of the worm. As the worm is twisted into the cork, the levers are raised. Pushing down the levers draws the cork from the bottle in one smooth motion. The most common design has a rack and pinion connecting the levers to the body. The head of the central shaft is frequently modified to form a bottle opener, or foil cutter, increasing the utility of the device. Corkscrews of this design are particularly popular in household use.

In 1880, William Burton Baker was issued British Patent No. 2950 for his double lever corkscrew, with both levers sliding onto the upper end of the shank.

The first American patent was in 1930 granted to the Italian Domenico Rosati who emigrated to Chicago, Illinois, to work as bartender before prohibition. Rosati's design had an exposed rack and pinion mechanism. Such design was adapted by other brands as the wine-market grew in popularity.

The winged owl version, with two side-plates covering the rack and pinion mechanism, was first designed and manufactured in 1932 by the Spanish industrial designer David Olañeta for his brand BOJ and was later adopted by others, such as the 1936 US Patent No. 98,968 by Richard Smythe marked HOOTCH-OWL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corkscrew

Significance

This object is significant as an example of an item in common use in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and that was developed further in the 1930s.

Physical description

Winged corkscrew with a T-shaped wooden handle, metal spring and worm-wheel screw section.

Inscriptions & markings

None.