Ovenston London Bridge Thomason Corkscrew

May be one of a kind and unrecorded! A magnificent steel Thomason by Ovenston. Handle typical Ovenston handle in good condition but you can see the badge is missing. Mechanism very good, barrel no dings or dents but shows some tarnish through age and finally original worm appears full length with good tip. The barrel is marked clearly ‘J OVENSTON’ and underneath that ‘MAKER’. With a strong glass you can see ‘72 the rest must read ‘Gt Titchfield St’ and underneath that LONDON again slightly unclear even with a glass. There’s more writing on the barrel I just can’t decipher it enough to confirm what it says. It might refer to the old London Bridge as other pieces do ? This may be the only Thomason linked to J OVENSTON, I’m certainly not aware of another. See Don Bulls article on Ovenston Corkscrews through this link.( http://www.bullworks.net/daily/weekly019.htm ) Adding to the provenance of this piece I can confirm it was bought through the auctioneers Reeman Dansie who over the years have sold other Ovenston pieces including the world record Osborne corkscrew that sold a few years back for £50,000. So a rarity with historical significance and potentially one of a kind

Barrel just has tarnish wear I guess due to being almost 200 years old, this tarnish prevents a complete view of the inscriptions.