Winner of the Homer Babbidge Research Award, this is a much needed text covering an important segment of corkscrew history. It is a beautifully produced, authoritative and comprehensive work covering the history of corkscrews from the early use of corks and gun tool worms and hook cork pullers in the 15th and 16th centuries to the mechanical corkscrews used at the beginning of the 19th century. Included are the Irish cutlers Richard Singleton, Thomas Read, and John Read. Samuel Henshall's first corkscrew patent is decribed along with the controversy surrounding it.