MYSTERY OBJECTS

[plaques]

.I still have several crates of wine in the pantry and there is no point in pre-dating their demise.... )

Don't get too oiled up or you'll have Stanley spitting feathers.

[David Whipp]

Pardon me, Stanley, but I wonder if I can intrude with a query raised on facebook?

Someone has found this object under their skirting board; about the size of a 10p and with a blank reverse. Anyone any answers?

(By the way, I agree with the lamp suggestions...)

[Marilyn]

.I still have several crates of wine in the pantry and there is no point in pre-dating their demise.... )

Don't get too oiled up or you'll have Stanley spitting feathers.

Special occasions only Plaques. When we lived closer to our adult children, they would often come to dinner, and drink large amounts of our wine. Now we have moved, we see them less, hence the stockpile! We do occasionally treat ourselves, of course....

[Stanley]

Maz actually got there when she said it was a thingy for oiling mill machinery. P knows what it is because he gave a clue with feathers in it. Its a small container that hung on the loom with oil in it and a feather stuck in for applying the oil.
The small round object. The clue might be 'blank on the back'. There seems to be evidence of damage in the middle and this could be where the ring that made it into a button failed. I think it's a button and almost certainly off some sort of semi-ceremonial jacket connected with a local society. Barnoldswick SDS doesn't ring a bell but at the start of the 20th century there was a Left Wing political party called the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) (LINK) and it was as its name suggests a federation of many small Social Democratic groups so I'd guess at Barnoldswick Social Democratic Society, but I have never come across them. Monogrammed buttons were very common then.

[Stanley]

While you are deciding about the button(?) have a crack at this one. The disc is less than 1/2" across.....

[David Whipp]

Stanley's new object has a large hole (for some sort of peg?); being frivolous, I'll guess a treacle miner's retaining stud.

On facebook's Barnoldswick Talk, Heather Sheldrick has posted the following about the S.D.S. disc:

"Extremely unlikely but the Salvatorians were sometimes abbreviated to SDS - Society of the Divine Saviour, a Catholic religious body. Could it have been a lapel button? Like I say, a bit of a long shot as there's no cross or other biblical symbol."

[David Whipp]

The lady who found the Barnoldswick S.D.S. disc has posted as follows on facebook:

Thank you, I think its brass but its only about 1-2mm thick. Not sure a button would be this thin? But very interesting nevertheless

[David Whipp]

Tim Hardy has posted the following on Barnoldswick Talk:

It's not a button. Tokens like these were widely issued in the engineering and mining industry. Miners exchanged a token for a lamp, at the end of a shift, the token was given back in exchange for the lamp being returned. In engineering companies where specialist tools were required, you exchanged your token for the tool that you needed, a form of 'signing out'. The token would be kept by the store until the tool was returned. The letters 'SDS' is the intriguing part. Anybody know of any Barnoldswick companies of old that would have these initials....? Perhaps a Lead Mining company?

[Stanley]

No mining in Barlick that I know of. 2mm plenty thick enough for a metal button, think of metal blazer buttons....
The object I put up hasn't been remotely approached yet. A very specific use.....

[chinatyke]

Was it for use on wax seals on documents or envelopes?

[Stanley]

Very very close China but it's not for that. Think of a more domestic use..... This dates to about 1950.....

[Big Kev]

Is it a bottle stopper?

[Wendyf]

Is it for marking butter?

[Gloria]

Stamping eggs.

[chinatyke]

For marking lead seals such as those used on electric meters or gas connections? Where else did they use lead seals?

[Tizer]

I'd support Tim Hardy's suggestion of some sort of token but it isn't restricted to mines or engineering. It could be any situation where the the token was held in lieu of something else, which could be material or not material (e.g. the right to enter somewhere).

Stanley's item could be for rolling on an ink pad and then on a document, letter or envelope, to authorise it's validity.

[PanBiker]

Stanley's object will imprint "LC" or "CL" is it for stamping rent books?

[Stanley]

Wendy has got the closest up to now. You are all on the right track. The monogramme is 'LG' my father's initials.... Think laundry......

[Gloria]

For stamping laundry or bedding sent to the wash house??

[Whyperion]

For marking lead seals such as those used on electric meters or gas connections? Where else did they use lead seals?

On the mechanical end of bus ticket machines - to stop conductors opening them and turning back the mechanisms of tickets sold. ( they did not have initials normally stamped on them though )

[Stanley]

Gloria has got it! Remember me talking elsewhere about the number of small businesses started on cunning wheezes after WW2? This was one of them. Small seals with monograms on like the old ones for wax. The initials are LG, my dad and the idea was you stamped the washing with indelible ink before sending to the laundry.
Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

Time Team would tell you it's a rare example of Early Samian treacleware made by dwarf Saxon glassworkers in underground workshops in the Ural Mountains - this one broken in a death ritual and buried with its owner who died while on his travels in early Barlickshire.

[Stanley]

It wasn't buried and not in Barlick. He's trying to divert you, he remembers what it is!

[Pluggy]

A broken coin tray made from ebony ?