A NUMBER of people correctly guessed the identity of last week's mystery object.

It was a corkscrew from the 19th century, and Margaret Waterhouse, of Skipton, said: "This week's mystery object is a corkscrew. The brush is for brushing away bits of cork after opening the bottle. My parents had one just like it."

Phyllis Capstick, from Hellifield, said: "We think this week's curiosity is an old corkscrew with a dusting brush. The brush was used to remove dirt from wax that was there to seal the bottles."

Made of brass and wood, the item comprises two screw fittings placed one inside the other, with a wooden handle and dusting brush.

The coat of arms and motto that are on the barrel of the object hints that the piece w probably produced by Edward Thomason.

The coat of arms includes the British royal insignia of the lion and unicorn with the motto “honi soit qui mal y pense” which translates as "shamed be he who thinks ill of it".

Thomason included his own motto “ne plus ultra”, meaning "cannot be improved further" which shows the confidence he had in his invention.

Thomason had been granted the patent for this new design of corkscrew in 1802. The mechanism incorporated both male and female threads and allowed the cork to be extracted easily simply by continually turning the handle clockwise.

According to his memoirs, Thomason manufactured 130,000 corkscrews in the 14 years allowed to him by the exclusivity of the patent. After this point, the design was copied by different companies and the mechanism continued in popularity throughout the 19th century.

The corkscrew - and all other items featured in this column - are on display at Craven Museum and Gallery, which is located in Skipton Town Hall.

Guesses regarding this week's mystery object should be emailed to news@cravenherald.co.uk