MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

It is nice isn't it but I have a surprise for you both, it isn't a door knob. Look at it very carefully......

[Stanley]

Click to enlarge the pic and give particular attention to how it is made..... Think doors but not knobs!

[chinatyke]

Is it off a bread oven, that were built into the hearths in very old houses like the one in your picture below?

[chinatyke]

Or you pulled it to ring a hand bell inside the house?

[Stanley]

Ah! You got there China. Yes, it's a bell pull for the old fashioned cable or chain operated interior bell. Lovely quality....

Try this one....

[Stanley]

There is a deathly hush in the close tonight......

[Gloria]

????? Another bell pull ????? Door ornament ????

[LizG]

Something out of a Harry Potter movie?

[plaques]

Corner piece of the Grand Hall mirror that went missing at the same time as the door knob and bell pull handle. Can I have them back?

[Cathy]

Looks like it belongs on the front of a car bonnet to me (Art Deco ?)

[Marilyn]

I think that would look great set in a shallow pond...looking up at the viewer but just below the surface.

[Tripps]

There is a deathly hush in the close tonight......

Breathless not deathless - takes me back to a very distant, and getting 'distanter' childhood.

Breathless hush. . .
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red, --
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; --
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

[Stanley]

You're right David, I mis-quoted....
I like the possible uses for the brass head especially Maz's suggestion... I'll come clean and tell you that I haven't got a definitive answer. It has a substantial threaded rod about 4" long on the back with a hand made square nut so it has some age, at least mid 19th century. My best guess is that it was a static handle, a pull, for a large piece of furniture or cupboard. Not big enough for a door knob. It has quality and I got it in a box of various odds and sods from a workshop sale. All the stuff was very old, that's where the ivory off cuts came from as well. Very well modelled face....
So, no resolution to the mystery! Next for shaving anyone?

[Cathy]

Just a thought... Could the figurehead belong on the top of a walking stick?

[Stanley]

It has that look hasn't it Cathy but no, the size of the cast base and heavy screw show that it was meant for mounting on a thick piece of wood.

[Gloria]

Possibly one of a pair from a large fireplace, they could have been on either side front top?

[Marilyn]

...it really speaks ( to me) of water/birth/theatre. The way the head emerges from it's background suggests birth, whilst the aged head suggests wisdom.
Where on earth did you get it Stanley?
Theatre doorknob?

[Stanley]

I once bought a bunch of stuff from an old workshop. Just a box of junk and I got it for next to nowt but it was a treasure trove of very old curious objects. There was a lot of door furniture in there. I agree with you that the head has something about it. Very well modelled.



Try this one. Yes, it's a micrometer but there is something very special about it.....

[Gloria]

It looks very old, pre 1940s probably. The anvils are a larger than standard diameter???

[plaques]

It was only on the 18 March last year that you put this for guessing. Now if was 'what did I have for tea last night ' I wouldn't have a clue.

[Stanley]

I know P but it is very hard to keep coming up with new objects and this one is quite remarkable. Gloria, you are right about the design but that's only part of the answer. Think Brown and Sharpe, Providence, RI. 1868......

[Gloria]

Without looking back and sorely tempted, is it for measuring the thickness of leather?

[Stanley]

No Gloria, intended for checking the thickness of steel sheet. I'll put you all out of your misery, it's the first commercially made modern micrometer made and sold by Browne and Sharpe.... It has a name stamped on it, J Nubley, the fitter it originally belonged to. I have several of his tools that came down to me from a clearance of an old shed....

Next for shaving?

[chinatyke]

Another quirky thing.

[Tripps]

I think I see a spring - baby bouncer? Perhaps a touch over engineered?