What on earth is this - pottery and cork item

Good Day All

I wonder if anyone can throw light on what this strange pottery and cork item is. The fat part is some sort of pottery with only half of it glazed. And then there is that strange cork knob in the centre. It is quite heavy.

I seem to recall my Grandmother telling me it was a device for darning socks - you inserted it into the toe of the sock you were darning - but then what is the cork all about? A place to spear your needle when you stopped darning? Or I may be imagining this entirely.

All help gratefully accepted.

 

Most sock darning tools I'm familiar with are egg-shaped, one piece, with a longer handle, and wooden. This may have been someone's make-do or a local or regional type that didn't make it out to the wider world.

Are there any scratches in the glazed part?

 

Or darn mushroom. Could you give us an idea of size? Wondering if you would have wrapped what needed mending over & under edges, then held the whole business in the palm of one hand, securing it by holding the cork between 2 fingers.

Had that thought for a moment too, but cork looks unpunctured?

As a kid, I loved it that my mother had a little dried gourd for this purpose. That, the chunk of beeswax used to make working with very heavy thread easier, & the little gizmo that could run around the floor my dad taught me how to make* (from an empty spool, a rubber band, a metal washer, 1 whole toothpick & part of another), were the only sewing-related things that interested me.

 

*Instructions available upon request.

 

I thought ink bottle.

 

I don't remember any scratches. I'm afraid I sealed up the box and packed it away last night so I can't check without a major palaver. It was quite a business up a ladder getting everything to fit back in place so it may be a while before I access it again.

 

I used to make those too. I think we rubbed a bit of candle on the ends to make the mechanism slide smoothly. I wonder if they work with modern plastic cotton reels.

 

It didn't occur to me that the pottery could be hollow. It feels very solid. I thought the cork was glued to the bottom and didn't fiddle for fear of the cork breaking apart with old age. Whatever it is, it was probably used by my Great-Grandmother.

 

Think I have tried it with the modern spools & found too light to stay down, the rubber band & toothpick making them flip instead of roll. Maybe, after first securing the loose end down so it wouldn't all unspool, you could do it with one that still had thread. Probably spook the cats!