Tarmle (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tarmle) wrote,@ 2007-11-29 00:42:00 |
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Mystery Object
This kit was bought in a junk shop in Enniscorthy about twenty years ago as a curio. Despite some effort there has been no progress in identifying its purpose.
The kit consists of a small, well-worn pouch of fine purple leather closed with a single snap fastener on a double flap (the letters GEM are stamped on the underside of the fastener cap). The pouch is approximately by 9.5cm by 6.5cm when closed, 9.5cm by 17.5cm open. The outside of the pouch shows a patch of what appears to be thick, dried ink that is flexible yet cracked in places.
There is a single, very faint Cyrillic 'R' ['Я'] on the top of the lower flap angled to the left of the fastener (too faint to show up in a photograph) which looks like the first letter of a word or phrase arcing down under the fastener. No other letters are visible.
Opening the pouch reveals a set of four polished, purple wedges, each with a small knob at the top. The wedges appear to be made from Bakelite or some other dense primitive plastic and seem to have been cut and turned rather than moulded. Each wedge is attached by a 9cm brass chain to something resembling a map pin made of the same material. The metal spikes in the map pins are irregular, some shorter, some placed off-centre. There are six loops in the pouch that hold the four wedges and two pieces of cork into which the pins are stuck.
Characters are stamped along the edge of each wedge: "No 720903"
This kit was bought in a junk shop in Enniscorthy about twenty years ago as a curio. Despite some effort there has been no progress in identifying its purpose.
The kit consists of a small, well-worn pouch of fine purple leather closed with a single snap fastener on a double flap (the letters GEM are stamped on the underside of the fastener cap). The pouch is approximately by 9.5cm by 6.5cm when closed, 9.5cm by 17.5cm open. The outside of the pouch shows a patch of what appears to be thick, dried ink that is flexible yet cracked in places.
There is a single, very faint Cyrillic 'R' ['Я'] on the top of the lower flap angled to the left of the fastener (too faint to show up in a photograph) which looks like the first letter of a word or phrase arcing down under the fastener. No other letters are visible.
Opening the pouch reveals a set of four polished, purple wedges, each with a small knob at the top. The wedges appear to be made from Bakelite or some other dense primitive plastic and seem to have been cut and turned rather than moulded. Each wedge is attached by a 9cm brass chain to something resembling a map pin made of the same material. The metal spikes in the map pins are irregular, some shorter, some placed off-centre. There are six loops in the pouch that hold the four wedges and two pieces of cork into which the pins are stuck.
Characters are stamped along the edge of each wedge: "No 720903"
