Historical information

This hand held, wooden bottle corker would have been used by soft drink or wine producers to insert corks into their bottles to seal the drink inside. It seems it may have had a metal tip on the end of the plunger, as do other similar bottle corkers, because this plunger has a compressed end and a ring shape impressed into the wood a little way up from the tip.

How to use the bottle corker …
- soak a long, bullet shaped cork in water to soften it
- place the bottle corker over the bottle’s neck
- insert the cork through the side opening and place onto the metal funnel
- push the plunger down onto the cork, forcing it into the tapered, which will squeeze the cork to size as it enters the bottle. Use a mallet or hammer if necessary

The design of this bottle corker is very similar to “"Redlich's Apparatus for Corking Bottles", which was invented and patented by Henry Redlich of Chicago, USA, in 1862, US patent #35,325. H. Redlich’s gave the following instructions for the use of the bottle corker:
“DIRECTIONS: SOAK THE CORK, DROP INTO THE OPENING AND TAP THE PLUNGER WITH A MALLET OR HAMMER.”

Significance

This hand held, wooden bottle corker would have been used by soft drink or wine producers to insert corks into their bottles to seal the drink inside. It seems it may have had a metal tip on the end of the plunger, as do other similar bottle corkers, because this plunger has a compressed end and a ring shape impressed into the wood a little way up from the tip.

How to use the bottle corker …
- soak a long, bullet shaped cork in water to soften it
- place the bottle corker over the bottle’s neck
- insert the cork through the side opening and place onto the metal funnel
- push the plunger down onto the cork, forcing it into the tapered, which will squeeze the cork to size as it enters the bottle. Use a mallet or hammer if necessary

The design of this bottle corker is very similar to “"Redlich's Apparatus for Corking Bottles", which was invented and patented by Henry Redlich of Chicago, USA, in 1862, US patent #35,325. H. Redlich’s gave the following instructions for the use of the bottle corker:
“DIRECTIONS: SOAK THE CORK, DROP INTO THE OPENING AND TAP THE PLUNGER WITH A MALLET OR HAMMER.”

Physical description

Bottle corker, a hand operated wooden corking device for sealing bottles. Bottle corker has two parts comprising a wooden plunger rod with knob handle, and wooden cylinder containing a metal tube that is flared to a funnel shape on the top. The cylinder has a hole the diameter of the rod at both ends and an oval insertion slot in one side. The tip of the plunger rod is slightly compressed and it has an indented line around the circumference as though it has had something attached to it. Manufactured in the late 1899s to early 1900s in Melbourne.