An extremely rare early 18th century

An extremely rare early 18th century, French, gold mounted tortoiseshell corkscrew, with a spirally fluted cover, unscrewing to reveal a steel worm, the handle in the form of a whistle decorated with pique-work leaves and tendrils, with a floral boss at one end and a spyglass running through the centre, struck with a maker's mark (overstruck by countremark and therefore indecipherable), a small discharge mark for Paris 1727-1732 and a countermark for Paris 173201738, by an unascribed maker Paris 2nd quarter of the 18th century, 2.6in (6.6cm) long.