Day 3 at Brimfield is always May’s. And, May’s is an interesting concept. The mantra is, that “there are no early buyers at May’s.”
The way it works is like this. All the dealers have their trucks, vans, or cars parked out in May’s field, and while they can have tables set up, they are not allowed to set out any merchandise for sale until 9:00 am.
Being unable to set stuff up, the idea is that the dealers can’t buy from each other, and no one is allowed in early.
So, while they are awaiting the clock to strike 9, the crowds stand impatiently at the gate, also waiting for nine o’clock where upon they pass through the gates and start making their way along the aisles where little has yet to have been placed on the tables for sale.
What ends up happening, is there is lot of “Do you have any old corkscrews.” Only to be met with the response, “I do, but I can’t get to them yet. Come back in 20 minutes or so.”
And, so you do. You come back, only to find that they didn’t have any corkscrews, or it is one of those grapevine things, or worse…they just sold it to someone else.
Still, there are advantages as well. In May, I picked up a Murphy flynut corkscrew that had just been placed on the table, even though several other collectors had been by. Stuff suddenly appears, so it requires multiple laps around the field.
That said, this show (minus the first day) hasn’t really been a good one for corkscrews, and after several jaunts around May’s all I ended up with is a couple of long French Champagne taps, and yet another Flash (this one for Hollywood Florida).
After exhausting the field, and feeling like another lap wouldn’t net out anything, I hopped in the car and headed for Boston where I picked up the lovely bride!
On Day 4, the lovely and I, headed back down to Brimfield for the Friday opening of J & J’s. This particular field is always pretty fun, as many of the dealers that set up there, don’t set up any previous days. So, there is the chance of finding “fresh” merchandise.
As we meandered along, we passed on a Ivory corkscrew with sterling as it was a bit pricey, but then the lovely eyed a bar spoon with corkscrew, and oddly enough a few booths later a very different bar spoon with corkscrew. Both good deals at about at 5 bucks each. However, in the same booth with the second bar spoon was a handsome stag handle corkscrew with sterling end cap.
While, I don’t think all the dealers at Brimfield get together and discuss pricing, as a rule, if you happen to run across a nice stag handle corkscrew, or ivory handle, with any sterling adornments you will see prices of 285, 300, 450 and similar. This one however, was significantly less, and more importantly, didn’t have your ordinary sterling end cap. This one instead, looks to be a Theiry and Crosselmire patent corkscrew, and the makers cut away all the existing sterling except for said endcap. An interesting variation of a corkscrew which doesn’t turn up all that often.
After examining the corkscrew closely, we agreed upon a price, and off we went. Not many corkscrews after that purchase, but we walked the field a bit longer, and then decided it was time to hit the road.
Next stop: Montague, MA.
Montague is home to the breeder where our new puppy is coming from, and we spent a few hours with the nine puppies, their mom, and the breeder. At 7 weeks they are playful and goofy. And, the lovely and I decided that the one we had chosen a couple of weeks ago, is indeed the one that will be coming home with us in a couple of weeks.
As mentioned in a previous blog, in the Briard world, each year is designated with a letter with which one is supposed to find a name for that year’s puppies. And, this year happens to be an H year. For months we have been discussing possible names, Helix, Henshall, Hanzell, etc… As it happens, the AKC name, doesn’t really have to be the call name, so we wanted to get creative and satisfy the AKC and come up with a corkscrew centric name that would also work.
So… After considering where we live, and our proximity to the harbor, and the need to include the breeder’s name (Tintagel), the puppy’s full AKC name is Tintagel’s Harbormaster Vinohaven’s Philos Blake. Or, for those of you playing along at home, the puppy will be called “Philos”
After visiting the pups, we made our way back to the island, where yesterday was a fantastic Summer day. We road bikes around the island in the morning, then hopped into a boat with some friends and headed to another small island for a picnic of lobster rolls and wine/beer, and then in the evening hopped into a small skiff to head over to North Haven for a premiere of a new movie.
I will post a few pictures of corkscrews that were acquired over the last couple of days of Brimfield soon, but right now another cup of coffee is in order.
josef@vintagecorkscrews.com corkscrewing around 