I was first introduced to the Cortu magnetic bottle opener when my friend and colleague Roger Brownless brought one in to work and handed it round at coffee time, saying “what’s this?”. He knew full well, having seen one in use when he was a child. When he saw one at a car boot sale, he couldn’t resist buying it.
Since then, Roger and I have both bought several more examples, usually when they come up on eBay. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in these delightful examples of British workmanship, as prices have never been very high. Perhaps that will change with the publication of this web page!
My most recent Cortu related purchase was the advert pictured. This is also available to download as a higher resolution PDF file (872 KB). This is the first time I’ve seen any documentary evidence of when they were made, although Roger and I had always assumed the 1950s.
Still to come – pictures of some of the Cortu openers in my collection.