CAST IRON CROWN CAP OPENER REG NO 458

Submitted by Anthony on Sat, 10/12/2016 - 13:17

Forums:

The question is, how old is this cast iron crown cap bottle opener, (pictures sent in from Australia, see below)?

William Painter patented the crown cap in 1892 (U.S. Patent 468258) and the crown cap bottle opener in 1894 (U.S. Patent 514200).

Chances are that 458 is an Australian registered design, but online searching of Australian designs is limited from registration number 90000 to the present day. Can anyone find an Australian registered design list with dates? Australian design registration became a Commonwealth responsibility on 1st July 1907. Perhaps 458 is an Australian registered design from the early 1900's?

Dating English registry marks can be seen here. Some common English registered designs for crown cap bottle openers include RD. 702661 (on Types E and F openers) and 708483 (on Type H openers), which were registered around 1924. A design with RD. 811274 on one side and PT. 466444 on the other (on Type G openers), was registered in 1936. If we search for 458 in the English registry marks table, it would appear to be 1884, which is too early to be a crown cap opener.

Any help or feedback appreciated.

Anthony

Wed, 14/12/2016 - 17:58

The following reference is available in preview: Commonwealth of Australia, Containing Authoritative Statistics for the Period 1901-1910 and Corrected Statistics for the Period 1788 to 1900 No 4-1911. Published under the Authority of the Minister for Home Affairs by G. H. Knibbs, CMG, Fellow of the Royal statistical Society etc., etc., Commonwealth Statistician. By authority McCarron, Bird & Co., Printers, Collins Street, Melbourne. CS No 117. Section XXXII, Miscellaneous, Page 1171

On Page 1171, under “Applications for copyrights, trademarks and designs under the Commonwealth Acts 1907 to 1910 inclusive”, it reports that 77 design applications were registered in 1907, 180 in 1908, 166 in 1909 and 160 in 1910, meaning the Australian design number 458 was registered in 1910. Crown cap bottle openers were certainly in use and growing in popularity in 1910, but we don’t know if the Australian design number 458 was in fact the opener in question.

crowncork

Sat, 17/12/2016 - 10:57

I have seen one of these in an Australian collection the collector dates it as circa 1910-1915