On Friday October 17 I drove to Atlantic City, New Jersey for the fall Atlantique Show. You may remember my visit last Spring (Corkscrews in Atlantic City) when I acquired a number of interesting corkscrews and took some unusual Mug Shots! This time I saw Goodman, Luterman, Becker, White, Walters, Sieminski and Mattson. I didn't buy many things this time BUT...well here they are:

Not very exciting eh? All I got was the box that all these feather friends in my collection were originally packaged in (individually). The box says "Polly Bottle Opener and Ice Cracker, Practical and Useful, Bill removes caps, tail pulls corks, base cracks ice, chromium plated, No. 15 Made in U.S.A." plus a logo with initial H N. It was nice to add a box to my growing collection of original packaging.
Things got a little better at the show with the addition of the unmarked German multi-tool at left. The corkscrew on the right (also unmarked) has a cheese sampler which serves as the handle and the case for the worm when folded inward. and here's what really made my trip worthwhile:
This is a bottle guard made of leather mounted on a cast iron base. The guard slides over the top of a bottle. One holds it in place and the bottle down by stepping on the two pedals on the side. This gives an assist in pulling the cork and also protects the user in case of glass breakage. Frank Ellis (fe3258@ggr.co.uk) recently collected some Farrow & Jackson Trade Catalogue pages from the London Patent Office. In a catalogue dating from the 1867-1873 period, a Bottle Guard is pictured.

I was also fortunate in adding 19 Corkscrew Postcards to my collection of 565 different.

© Don Bull, October 24, 1997