Registered Figural Corkscrews

Some Conclusions from Frank Ellis

Registered British Figural Corkscrews

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a corkscrew? Is it a toasting fork or a door knocker? - Well the answer is probably "Yes - it could be all of them".

In the Quarterly Worme of March 1998 I raised some points and questions about British Figural Corkscrews with registration numbers. Now after some correspondence with fellow members of the CCCC and a year of research from Barbara and myself I can give you a much clearer understanding of what is registered and what is not.

Much of the research is incomplete and because of the size of the task it never will be complete. But what I have discovered is certainly a representative assessment of the whole picture I think. Designs for the figural handles of corkscrews started being registered in the second decade of this century, gaining popularity in the 1920s and peaking in numbers in the early 1930s.

Some have probably never been made, and some like the Surprise of 1884 are very common. The attraction of this area of research is that the Design Registers show a picture of the corkscrew and gives its date of registration and the name and address of the designer. There is a wealth of information, some of which you can seen in my best Sixes for 1997 and 1998.

But it is important to realise what a Registered Design means. It is specifically that. The Design is placed in a Register and copyright protection is granted for a period of years. This is normally 5 years for the period that we are covering here but it could be extended for an additional fee for any successful design. I am aware of some designs that were extended for a further 2 sets of 5 years. It is the actual design that is important - not the construction nor function. In this respect it is different to a patent. For a patent to be granted the invention had to be "new". For example, once Thomason patented his novel mechanism in 1802 no-one else could have protection for the same mechanism again. However someone could register a host of designs for new fancy styles of Thomason barrels. They didn't - but that's beside the point.

You can maybe start to see why there could be many designs registered for corkscrew handles. The worm and shank could not be granted protection because they are as old as the hills, but any new style of handle could be granted copyright protection.

Their next offerings are as the new merged company Pearson-Page-Jewsbury Co. of Soho Works, Western Road in Birmingham. Under this name they registered a series of 9 very good quality and quite well known figural animals Reg. Nos. 779323 to 779331 on 4 January 1933. The first five of the series are an assortment of animals standing on 4 feet with the corkscrew as the tail. Number 779328 shows a pair of very friendly doggies indeed. The last four of the series do not actually show the worm in the registration picture although they all figure as handles on top of straight pull eyebrows. I have also seen them on the side of ashtrays etc. The original copies of this set are photographs and some do not photocopy very well.

Pearson-Page-Jewsbury also registered another set of standing creatures a month later on 10 February 1933 with numbers from 780440 to 780445. These include Bonso Dog, a cartoon character that was popular at the time.

This company completed their zoo on 16 July 1936 with four dogs with their front feet and chin designed as a cap lifter, Reg. Nos. 811349 and 813865-7.

Surprisingly, this prolific breeder of such cute animal corkscrews was not the first in the field. They were beaten to the idea with Reg. No 773243, a strange looking dog by Esencourt & Co on 13 May 1932 and later by The Hercules Cycle & Motor Co. of Crane Industries, Manor Mills, Long Acre in Birmingham with Reg. Nos. 777641-777644 on 20 October 1932. However it is documented that the latter sold the idea to P-P-J - "in pursuance of an application received on 26 September 1933, Pearson-Page-Jewsbury Co. Ltd., Soho Works, Western Road, Birmingham are registered as proprietors [of the design] by virtue of a deed dated 19 September 1933 between The Hercules Cycle & Motor Co. on the one part and Pearson-Page-Jewsbury Co. Ltd. of the other part. Clearly P-P-J knew a good idea when they saw one. I am sure they probably acquired the rights to 773243 also.

There follows a series of designs from the Registers and a list of all of the figural corkscrews that I know of to this date. The work will never be completed so your challenge is to add to this knowledge.

Just to give you a feel for the immensity of the task, Barbara and I have diligently worked through each of 270,000 entries from 1884 to 1895 and this has taken approximately 20 man days. In practical terms that is about 10 Saturdays per year. You may think this is rather a stupid way to spend a Saturday but we are after a lot more than just figural corkscrews. We pick up information to support Barbara's collection of owls but the main aim is broader. We are trying to get a comprehensive survey of all registered corkscrews from 1840 up to Jan 1908 (Number 518643) after which point the Public Record Office changes its archiving system to make it essentially impossible to browse though books. After that there is a somewhat unreliable index which sometimes identifies a corkscrew as a kitchen tool or other such tantalising description.

It may sound an impossible task but the end is in sight. We have been through every entry systematically from 1840 to 1895 and have another 20 man days to get to Jan 1908. For the period after that from 1912 to 1950 I am indebted to Francis Hutchinson who has trawled through a slightly unreliable index and allowed me to use the information. The four intervening years from 1908 to 1912 may prove to be problematical.

Specific thanks are due to Francis Hutchinson for all the data he found a few years ago; to Tony Lopez and Alan Thomason for loads of information; to John Compton, Barry Taylor, David Smith, John Belcher, Mike Meakin, Ferd Peters, Dave Munday, Murray Atkinson, Wayne Meadows, John Cornell and Bert Giulian who all responded with further additions.

Finally to Dick Neumann who started it all with his Best 6 of 1997 and to Bob Roger who shared details of his figurals with Dick and copied me in to ask the stupid question " can you enlighten us any more - we are talking about your territory!"

List of all simple straight pull figurals with Registration numbers known to Frank Ellis as of 31 January 1999
(Gaps in the table indicate that the appropriate Register has not yet been checked)