Alf's World of Corkscrews
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The Annual General Meeting of the International Correspondence of Corkscrew Addicts for 2003 took place in Roanoke, Virginia. 
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Founded in the waning days of 2001, The Patpong Corkscrew Club is open to members of a wide variety of genders and nationalities. It is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand, near that city's famous Patpong District. Information on the Club is available at PatpongCorkscrewClub.com ... which is a Corkscrew-Balloon.com affiliated site. |
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As all of the items that I want to use in my 2001 Best Six selection are currently lying in drawers in Florida ... while I am here in Bangkok ... the photograph that I am using is actually an ‘inventory’ photograph: one that was taken just to record some of the items that I purchased during the last year.
See also: Framed samples from my collection
Here are my "Best 6" photographs for the years from 1978 through 1993. As these are photographs of photographs, the quality of the pictures are not as good as the 1994 - 2000 ones. Also, they are more of a 'mixed bag' than are the later ones.
 1978 |
 1979 |
 1980 |
 1981 |
 1982 |
 1983 |
 1984 |
 1985 |
 1986 |
 1987 |
 1988 |
 1989 |
 1990 |
 1991 |
 1993 |
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This year, Watcharee helped me out by digging through piles of corkscrews in Fort Lauderdale and selecting my annual 'Best Six.' (Note that 2543 in the Thai Buddhist calendar translates into the year 2000 in the Gregorian calendar.)
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ALF LEIF ERICKSON |
alf@corkscrew-balloon.com or corkscrew@aol.com |
Dear Fellow Corkscrew Addict,
Once again my "Best Six" deviates somewhat from the conventional. As most of you know, I have become rather absorbed with hot air ballooning during the '90s. First there was one. Then there were two. And soon there will be three. Yes, three hot air balloons: all decorated with corkscrews.
My final balloon is getting its last stitches even as I write this. Like the ones before it, Cameron Balloons Ltd. of Bristol, England built it. In size it falls midway between its siblings: having a volume of 210,000 cubic feet as compared with 180,000 and 250,000 for the two earlier balloons.
This balloon drastically differs from the others in that the corkscrews are subordinate to a pair of "Screwmaids." And, rightfully so.
Unlike my earlier "Best-Sixes," 1999 brings an unfinished product to your eyes. These photographs show Corkscrew-Balloon #3 at the blueprint point, the construction phase and at the near completion stage.
This balloon will have its maiden flight in late January 2000, at Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland. Its two older brothers will escort it into the air. Of course, the live "Screwmaids" will be among the first passengers.
I plan to bring this balloon to the Berlin ICCA meeting in 2000.
Sincerely,
Alf
P.S. For those addicts and "go-withs" who wish to see how this balloon was conceived, designed and built, please visit my web page. A dozen or so clicks will reveal everything.
All six of these pieces were collected by Bob Nugent. A few of us were privileged to share in his collection.
This year, "My Best Six" is not about these corkscrews; it is about the detail that Bob put into everything. Almost every corkscrew that Bob ever found was tagged and typed.
Nobody did it better than Bob. We really miss him.
1994-1997 Corkscrews
Here are my six best corkscrews from the years 1994 through 1997. Click on any image to see a larger view and descriptions of the individual items.
2001 Helix Scandinavica AGM
Helix Scandinavica met in Esbjerg, Denmark for its May 2001 Annual General Meeting. Among the items on the agenda: rides with the Screwmaids in Corkscrew Balloon III.
2000 ICCA Bottlescrue
The International Conference of Corkscrew Addicts held its 2000 annual meeting in Berlin. Watcharee and I attended, and all of the details are in my Corkscrews in Germany Journal.
1999 ICCA Meeting in Philadelphia
The International Conference of Corkscrew Addicts held its 1999 annual meeting in September in Philadelphia. All the details of the goings on are in my journal.
1999 CCCC Annual General Meeting
On August 1, 1999, the Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club held its Annual General Meeting at Saumur, in the Loire Valley. Even though we had just been in that region a few weeks earlier, Annie and I decided to return for the meeting and for some additional ballooning
Christie's Auction, May 1999
In May 1999, I decided at the last minute to attend a corkscrew auction at Christie's South Kensington. Although I didn't produce a full-fledged journal for this trip, you can see the auction catalog and some of London's phone booth girls ...
1998 ICCA Meeting and London Auction
In September 1998, the International Conference of Corkscrew Addicts met in London. A few days later, there was a corkscrew auction at Christie's.
1997 ICCA Meeting
In September 1997, the International Conference of Corkscrew Addicts met in France.
1997 Auctions in London
In May 1997, we went to two auctions at Christie's in South Kensington, London. On August 6 (after ballooning in France) we returned for another auction and another chance to snare some interesting collectibles!
1996 CCCC Meeting
In August 1996, we went to Connecticut for the 1996 annual meeting of the Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club.
The Corkscrew Balloon Fleet
I have built two hot air balloons with corkscrew motifs, and they have lately been making flights all around Europe. For details and various interesting and incriminating photographs, see my balloon pages.
Waiting in the wings: Corkscrew Balloon III! This new design is presently receiving its finishing touches at the Cameron Balloon Works in Bristol, England, and it will have its maiden flight at Chateau d'Oex in January 2000.
Interesting Links:
- Corkscrews
- Don Bull's Corkscrew Gallery
- Don Bull's Corkscrew Museum
- "corkscrewinn.com": the Corkscrew Inn
- "icorkscrew.net": corkscrews for collectors and wine related antiques
- "corkscrewnet.com" is Joe Paradi's great new site, where corkscrew collectors meet!
- ICCA is the International Correspondence of Corkscrew Addicts.
- The Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club can be found here:
- Don Bull Edition
- Dean Walters Edition (with 2004 AGM details)
- Joe Paradi Edition
- Don Bull is another antique corkscrew collector. His home page is a very useful source for findingall sorts of things!
- Dean Walters has a great site with antique corkscrews and related information.
- Joel Goodman Antiques offers corkscrews.
- Campagnolo Corkscrews are sold online
- Mike Gordon also has corkscrews for sale
- Ferd Peters has a book on German Corkscrew Patents
- Rolf Herrmann and Klaus Pumpenmeie are collectors in Germany
- From "The Tap Room": Craig Goldwyn offers tips on selecting a corskcrew for home use.
- Harvey's Wine Museum provides an extensive illustrated history of the corkscrew.
- "corkscrew.com" is an excellent web site created by a corkscrew dealer in San Jose, California.
- AuctionWeb Classifieds is an online auction house.
- Derek White, a keen collector of corkscrews, maintains a site on the web.
- C-Y Yang has an interesting corkscrew site in Taiwan. Although most of the descriptions are in "Chinese Big-5 Code" (and therefore will not be handled very well in browser software that is expecting English characters), there is enough English to make it worthwhile.
- Wine
- Wine Spectator - "The most comprehensive wine web site in the world"
- Robert Parker Online - The independent consumer's guide to fine wine.
- Joseph Drouhin Wines
- Château Haut-Brion has a great collection of wine-related links.
- The Speakeasy Cafe in Seattle has an extensive Wine Page.
- Robin Garr, a manager of the Bacchus Wine Forum on CompuServe, offers some excellent wine recommendations at Robin Garr's Wine Bargain Page on the Web.
- Smart Wine Magazine is available online.
- The Spanish Wine Page has all the information you need about the wines of Spain.
- The Kendall Jackson Wineries print their URL on the bottle label to attract net-savvy oenophiles. There is a lot of information at their site.
