Designer: Carl Auböck II (1900 – 1957) and Carl Auböck III (1924 - 1993)

Item: Key Corkscrew Early Model

Manufactured by: Werkstätte Carl Auböck

Country of origin: Austria

Year made: 1930s

Materials: Brass, steel and possible pewter or another lead-based metal

Dimensions:  ¾” x 5 ¼” x 2”

Condition: Very good for its age with a beautiful patina.

References: Wright Auction Catalog; The Workshop: Carl Auböck Designs 1930-1980 (2016); Auböck, Carl IV, die kataloge der werkstätte carl auböck 1925 – 1975, Carl Auböck Archive (2005); Auböck, Carl IV, die arbeiten der Werkstätte carl auböck – fotografiert von 1948 – 2005, Carl Auböck Archive (2009).

Description: Here is perhaps the most famous, most ubiquitous and most copied Auböck design of all time; the Key Corkscrew. Although most sources cite Carl II as the designer it was actually the collaborative work of both Carl II and his son Carl III, when Carl III was just 14 years old. There were several different iterations and sizes of this corkscrew over the years.

Based on its overall condition and the natural patina it has acquired we believe this to be one of the earliest and rarest examples of this object, dating from sometime in the early-to-mid 1930s. Drawings for this design are found in the Archives book starting in 1938. It is unmarked, and open at the end of the key, as we have seen with other examples of this early design.