It seems that every once in a while, a German spring corkscrew will turn up online. And while some are more common than others, there are very different mechanisms that still involve a spring barrel. Looking closely at these seemingly common corkscrews, one may notice that there are indeed differences that separate the common from the decidedly less than common.
And, yesterday a German spring corkscrew was made available online, for a very fair price. From the pictures however, it was difficult to make out if it was of the common variety, or the less than common variety.
It looked as there might be more to the corkscrew than the photo actually showed. So, with a little photoshop to brighten the image that was provided, it began to reveal that inside the spring there was another mechanism.
I wasn’t sure exactly what German corkscrew this was, but it definitely was worth taking a chance. I agreed to the price, and promptly paid for the item.
And, then I set about perusing Ferd Peter’s Mechanical book, Ferd Peter’s book on German Registrations, and anything else that might show a similar corkscrew. There was something close on page 88 of Ferd’s Mechanical book, but the handle was different.
Then it occurred to me, why not check the past successful listings on the ICCAuction site.
After wading through the various German corkscrews, I came across a listing with pictures that definitely comes close.
I went back to the images from the corkscrew being offered and compared closely. It will take some time for the German mystery to arrive, but I am pretty sure that it is indeed a Carl Ulrich 1898 German Registration!
A nice addition to the German spring corkscrew collection!
josef@vintagecorkscrews.com corkscrewing around 