HISTORY
OF CORKSCREWS
In the Portrait Gallery of Berlin hangs an altar frontal entitled "The
Wine Miracle of St. Bertin of St. Marmion", part of which depicts the
use of a barrel borer. This common piece of equipment is the forerunner
of the corkscrew.
Like many good things in life wine improves with age and man has improved
on the raw ingredients. Since the earliest records wine has been made
for man's delight.
Since the ancient Egyptians, wine has been stored in many utensils animal
skins, earthenware jars and wooden barrels. Many of these containers
were stoppered with bungs of wood or cork. This was freely available
in Mediterranean countries and the container would have been easily
broached with a sharp blow. Once open however, the wine would have had
only a short life and therefore would have been unlikely to have been
of exceptional quality because of the quantity in the large containers.
This use of cork for stoppering ceased along with the fall of the Roman
Empire.
Over the following years it was realised that although barrels were
excellent vehicles for transporting wine, wine that is put into tightly
corked bottles not only lasts longer but it matures and acquires its
distinctive bouquet. It was also realised that if a bottle is tightly
corked it can also be stored on its side thus keeping the cork moist
and improving the seal.
The history of the wine bottle is fascinating in itself and is worthy
of further study, but it is sufficient here in the history of the corkscrew
to note that the wine bottle was probably first seen in the early half
of the 17th. Century and its shape altered dramatically during the next
two centuries. The 17th. and 18th. Century bottles were known as "shaft
and globe" or "onion" because of the shape of the body and neck and
these were stoppered with a tapered cork bound with wax linen. They
stood upright on the shelf. Everyone is familiar with the bottles of
today with their straight sided corks. It is these corks that provided
the need for an instrument to remove them in order to drink the contents
of the bottle.
It was quickly realised that a good purchase was necessary on the cork
in order to remove it from the tight grip of the neck of the bottle.
Twisted metal was considered to be suitable but the type of metal and
how it was manufactured was the puzzle. Even today it is apparent that
there are two distinct types of screw or worm - the smooth metalled
helix and the sharp-edged Archimedian - each having their own devotees.
The Archimedian worm is so called because of its resemblance to Archimedes'
water-screw.
The very early corkscrews were manufactured by the gunsmiths of the
day and records have shown that they were included in the City of London's
livery companies amongst the Worshipful Company of Loriners. The Loriners
were not gunsmiths, however but makers of horse bits and spurs. One
of the earliest illustrations of a corkscrew in use can be seen in the
1773 publication entitled "The Presentation of Human Recreation" by
Tim Bobbin.
The first corkscrew is attributed to the end of the 18th Century but
the heyday of corkscrews coincided with the great period of British
manufacturing and invention, the middle of the 19th Century. At that
time men of vision were competing with each other to register patents
for all manner of inventions and the corkscrew was included in these
endeavours. The first patent registered was to Samuel Henshall in 1795.
The rise of the corkscrew is illustrated by the fact that between that
time and the beginning of the 20th Century, over 300 corkscrew patents
were registered. It is these corkscrews that have become the subject
of antique corkscrew collectors the world over.
As corkscrews became more common the materials used changed. Manufacturers
introduced the use of more expensive metals including gold, bronze and
silver. Other materials such as bone, ivory, enamel and other forms
of decoration were pressed into use.
