Posted 10 years ago
MarkRSalt
(14 items)
Recently bought rare Sampson Mordan Silver Fish on base. I'm a little unsure of its original purpose. It has no hole in the mouth as with the fish table lighter, nor a cut out for a pin cushion. It also has no cut out to hold a menu or name card and is a bigger than my other menu holders.
If anyone can enlighten me as to the original purpose I'd appreciate the input.
It's possibly a table paperweight, the base is missing its filling and needs replacing. I'll be doing a little cleaning & restoration to it as and when.
To further convince me it was originally used as a small desk paperweight I've come across another piece of the same size, again assayed in Chester but with the chick attached to the top. One can only assume the Duck, Pheasant and who knows what is still out there.
After a little sympathetic soldering and shaping it's looking great now (I think).
beautiful!!
I'm going to guess a lid with a fish as the handle.
I was thinking it was a lid for a jar to start with, but the inside is unfinished and shows the method of attaching the fish (the same method as the animals attached to the menu holders). This leads me to believe it was never intended to be seen. Thusly I think the cement is missing and would have been weighted as with a paperweight.