Featured Help to ID this item.

Hello, would need to known what was the use of this item.
It is 16 inches long X 3 1/4 inches wide. The crowns are very heavy,
about 100 grams each. Fabric looks old of course.
Any ideas??
Thanks,

Andre
Canada

 

I wonder if this was a bell-pull.

 

I think curtain tie back, bit short for a bell pull.

 

Thanks, I've never had a bell to pull.

 

Welcome to Antiquers Andrek7

 

I think a curtain tie-back also, but can't figure out how it would attach when drawn back. Also, WELCOME Andre !!! .. Joy.

 

Interesting piece. I agree, to hold back curtains. I have seen actual antique cloth bell-pulls - they're MUCH longer than this. Remember that bell-pulls had to hang down from the ceiling. So they'd be 2-3 feet at least.

 

I remember those. 1960s Italian import. Decorative bell pulls.

Debora

 

Here is an actual cloth bell-pull:



The bell-wire attaches to the ring on the right, and then it hangs down and is pulled by the handle at the bottom of the pull. I mean that's got to be at least two or three feet long right there...

 

Another bell-pull. Again, very long...

 

They don't attach. They sort of loop through a wall fitting and rely on weight to keep them draped nicely. If that makes sense.

 

Thank You Obb ... Joy

 

If this is a short as I think it is, it's a book weight. It kept your reference or other book from flipping shut while you needed two hands for something else.

 

Welcome, Andre.

I think you're right.
Too short for a bell pull, and although I understand obb's explanation of weights on a curtain tie back, I don't think that would work. Especially with someone as clumsy as yours truly. One stumble into the curtain, and the tie back comes undone.

 

Hi Andrek7 and welcome. Evelyb30 beat me to it, one of the disadvantages of living DownUnder - a different time zone and country.

I also think it looks like a bookmark or book weight, used to keep important books open at set texts in a Church for example where a particular verse might be the subject of the morning service, or for holding books open to study or show a particularly beautiful illustration.

It also helped keep oily and greasy fingerprints off pages when books were a lot more expensive than they are now, and probably explains the dark stains in the center of yours.

I just love the Royal crowns.