This is my 1st post on this forum so, please, bear with me. About me: I go to a ton of auctions/estate sales and pretty much pick up anything that I think is neat. 99% of my items that I purchase, I know what they are. But every once and a while I do get a piece that I am unfamiliar with. I’m young but I do know my stuff and have a lot of it. It’s always nice to talk with people and help others find out what they’ve got, too. So, now for my question. I bought this piece last week and have tried to put my finger on it, but can’t. Can anyone tell me what it is? It is a Tiffany & Co. Sterling piece from between 1907-47. It looks like some kind of stamper?
Hi there, and thanks for joining us. Looks to me like a flatware dinner knife handle with the knife missing.
Regards,
Uncle Vic
I think too small to be a handle(2-7/8"). And it really does look to be a complete piece.
Any thought to this being an egg shell cracker?
Well, I would put my money on it being a stamp. Is there nothing on the bottom? Usually they would have a relief on the bottom which you would press into your wax seal.
There is nothing on the face of it. It is just flat.
I used to have a porcelain conserve bowl and cover. The cover had a handle similar to this that slotted into a sort of keyhole in the lid, and there was a rubber washer around the end - where in your picture there’s the rim just above the flat base. May be something similar? why not contact Tiffany’s and ask them?
Finally, Tiffany got back to me and told me it was a 1958 cordis pattern telephone dialer of all things. Who would have thought. I’ll put that one in the books under category: strange/unusual items. Thanks to everyone for helping me identify this.
Wow! never heard of one of those before!
Well, when I was a kid in the late 40s and early 50s we had rotary phones and my Mom had one (not sterling, maybe brass) by each phone so she would not break her fingernails while dialing. Great mystery solved…
Uncle Vic
Pipe tamper???