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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;moreotherstuff, post: 132939, member: 56&quot;]Here&#039;s something that I photographed in 2003 and asked about on the eBay boards back then.&nbsp; It never did belong to me.&nbsp; It’s a little oddity a friend was looking for information on. The owner thought it was probably French (Quebec background on the family). It came into the family probably around 1900. At first glace, it looks like a small carriage clock, about 2 ¼” high with a base about 1 ½” square, each side and the top decorated with a pattern in filigree… but you know it’s not going to turn out that way. The “clock” is a false face, and the body opens on all sides. The filigree isn’t true filigree. The sides are pierced, but appear to be die cast. The piece has a gold tone, but I think it is some kind of plating, probably over copper.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the sides are folded down, 2 opposing faces are fitted with little leaf shaped thingies (acanthus? anthemion?) that fold up. Behind the clock is a beautiful little bottle held in a bracket that also folds up, and the back is faced by a small beveled mirror surrounded by a rope-twist frame. The base is occupied by a circular well covered with a pierced grate.</p><p><br /></p><p>The bottle is indeed beautiful. It is circular, about 1 ¼” across and just over ¼” thick. The neck on it is about ¼” high and still has its original stopper. Both main faces are ground and polished. The bottle sits in a metal bracket hinged to one face of the box. It is held in place by a collar secured to the bracket with a pin topped by a small bead of opalescent glass. I did not try to remove the pin for fear of doing more harm than good.</p><p><br /></p><p>Those fold-up thingies on either side are peculiar. Each is backed with a fan shaped array of tubes that originally held pins (about 1” long) like that holding the bottle in place. Only two of these pins remain, and again I did not try to budge them. Originally there would have been seven pins on each side.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think these pins were originally over-all gold, the color covering the beaded end having flaked away.</p><p><br /></p><p>The center well is an inch across and ¼” deep. It strikes me as being very much like a vinaigrette. If it is, the grill would have lifted off and there would have been a small sponge in the well. Perfume (from the bottle?) would have been dropped on the sponge. With its pierced sides, the closed box would have given off a fragrance even when closed. There is no sponge now, and the lid did not easily budge. (I did not try to force it.)</p><p><br /></p><p>So what would this thing have been used for? The owner thinks it is primarily a perfume bottle, but I am unconvinced. It might serve as a compact, but if you lay it out with the sides laid flat, the back mirror erect, and the fold-up thingies folded up, it doesn’t really work. You don’t have sufficient access to the (relatively small) mirror.</p><p><br /></p><p>And what would all those pins have been used for?</p><p><br /></p><p>The way every thing folds up, there would have been room in the center to hold some object (standing on that center well). If there was a piece that stood in the center, the mirror might have been to show the back side of it. Here’s an out-there conjecture: Suppose there was a little religious figure that stood in the center. Suppose all those pins would be inserted around the perimeter of that figure to form a halo. But then why would the piece be disguised as a clock?</p><p><br /></p><p>Anybody have any ideas?</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34298[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34288[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]34289[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34290[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34291[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34292[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34293[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34294[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34295[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]34297[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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