MYSTERY OBJECTS

[plaques]

Next best guess, Something to do with clock fusee movements. It doesn't appear to have any machining capabilities but more of a measuring device for existing fusee drums and then like Bodger says to set up a lathe for turning.

[Tizer]

For making astronomy diagrams - orbits of stars and the like?

[Stanley]

You're all getting so close and it is an obscure one so I shall give it to all of you. It's a very early mechanical device for grinding optical lens. If you look carefully you'll see one mounted on the table.



What can you tell me about this?

[chinatyke]

Obviously in Liverpool, someone has nicked the wheels.

[Stanley]

[plaques]

Putin and Trump on a day out'

[Stanley]

Again

[Tizer]

It's the latest attempt at the World Steam Engine Land Speed Record on Bonneville Salt Lake.

[Stanley]

P gets it I think because it's Russian. It was used in winter for pulling heavy loads across frozen lakes, often in railway trucks. More common than you'd think if going round the shore was a long diversion.
Next one?

[plaques]

Actually the Russian bit was just a joke. I actually thought it was a steam driven log puller in Norway. Can I still have it?

[Stanley]

Course you can, after all I may be wrong!

[Stanley]

Try this one..... (it's about 2" wide)

[Tizer]

For squeezing oranges to get the juice? A small pocket version especially for travellers?

[Stanley]

No Tiz but funnily enough not a million miles from the truth. Made of tough stoneware so dirt cheap to produce, there were millions of them.

[Tizer]

Was it to press down the glass ball in the top of a pop bottle and release the gas pressure?

[PanBiker]

Is it for rubbing twist tobacco ready for the pipe?

[Marilyn]

Snuffing out candles?
Collecting candle wax for re-use?

[Stanley]

Tiz homed in straight away. Known as the Codd bottle and yes that's exactly what it is!

[Tizer]

What can you tell me about this mystery object?

[Stanley]

Looks to be in one piece so I'm assuming it is a ring. It also looks like gold decorated with enamel. My mind flies to Russia, St Petersburg and Fabergé. In view of the opulence, almost certainly made for the Imperial family.
So my guess is a Russian Imperial ring.

[Tizer]

Yes it's a ring, gold but the colourful bits are not enamel. I don't know where it came from or who owned it or had it made. It could be Russian, perhaps Imperial. There is more to it than that. What is the profession of the person it was made for?

[Marilyn]

Priest?

[Stanley]

I'll go with Maz. High rank Orthodox clergy. Patriarch?

[Cathy]

I can see flowers and birds. It would have been quite the thing back in it’s day.

[Stanley]

And what look like Irish Harps!