Can someone tell me what this is ???

I volunteer at a small little thrift store and my boss and I were cleaning out the years of accumulation under the carport and she was going to scrap metal this thing along with a bunch of cast iron and rod iron fencing and real heavy rod iron decorative wall hanging pieces, and I was like OH NOOO ,, ill take them home , the thing is I have no idea what it is I took home ,, lol so if anyone could help me out identifying this thing in the pic ,, I would really appreciate it ,its got a patent date of feb 189? , its real heavy cast or pot metal,, I am assuming its some kind of hanger for something but what is the question ,,

thanks :o)