His first patented corkscrew, registered two years previously in 1840 is seen more frequently but is a rare beast nonetheless. A nice example, consigned from a local source, turned up at the Scarborough saleroom of David Duggleby (12.5% buyer's premium) on February 10. It sold to a Wiltshire buyer at £1000 (estimate £600-800).
Pictures were the strongest suit of this sale, and will be covered in a future issue, but it is worth noting a George III yew wood Windsor chair with a low back and a crinoline stretcher.
According to Bernard Cotton's The English Regional Chair, it is of a type associated with Retford c.1800-1820 although it will remain in Yorkshire. It sold to a private buyer from Scarborough at £1100.
A more standard form, but diminutive in size, was a 19th century child's yew and elm Windsor, just 2ft 2in (66cm) high, which sold at £620.
Ceramics provided the sale with its sleeper. Missed by the auctioneers, who were instructed to sell quickly, was a 15in (38cm) Charles Vyse, Chelsea period figure of a boy with a parrot and a cat around 15in (38cm) high. It sold at £1100 but still looked reasonable.
The £1000 corkscrew
Good corkscrews continue to attract solid sums. Alongside the likes of Thomas Lund and Edwin Cotterill, Robert Jones is one of the big names of the English patent market, if only because his so-called ‘Robert Jones II’ is among the rarest and most valuable of all corkscrews.