Totalling £8772 from some 60 lots, the collection included no fewer than three late-19th century cast-iron, brass and copper corking machines.
This particular example, right, derived from C. Brossalaer’s revolutionary ‘Improved Apparatus for Corking Bottles, Jars and other Vessels’, sold to a specialist dealer in oenological material for £360 against an estimate of £100-200.
What a corker!
The now-defunct firm of Hedges & Butler (est.1667) was one of the oldest wine merchants in England, originally based by the Thames on a site now occupied by Charing Cross Station. The name of the company has now disappeared, but what its own publicity described as “our very interesting collection of old Viniana” provided an eye-catching highlight for Bonhams’ (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) otherwise fairly routine mixed sale of art and antiques in Knowle.
