These two extra photographs are for the benefit of Crowbard and Rog (or indeed any of my readers who care to take a guess at last Friday's mystery object.
I think they will help to identify the object's primary purpose, although it is rather a rarity - not the sort of thing you'd expect to find at a car boot sale these days; nor the sort of thing that any jack of all trades would use.
Hope this helps.
Regards, Mike and Ann.
7 comments:
I'll have a wild guess at a C.19th pipe-box, Mike.
I like Crowbard's wild guess. Can you turn it over Mike?
Of course it could be a portable boot-jack?
Of course it might be a portable boot-jack?
Of course it might be a portable boot-jack?
Funny how one finds confirmation within your text once the right answer has been arrived at by tortuous reasoning and intense scrutiny. Your well disguised and subtle hints were completely camouflaged by the relevance of their placement yet stand out and waggle once the answer is found. I must start doing the Times Educational Supplement crossword again.
Well done, Crowbard. It is, of course, a portable boot jack, used to help remove a tight fitting boot. It folds down the centre, and looks like a double barrelled pistol. It would have been placed on the ground and the fore part of one foot placed firmly on the back end of the jack. The heel of the other foot would have been placed in the 'Y' part of the jack, then wiggled until the boot gave up its grip. Then you changed feet and reversed the process. A very similar bootjack (among a lot of more plain and functional ones) can be seen in illustration 246 H, in EH. Pinto's book 'Treen and other wooden Byegones' the textbook on the subject.
I really didn't think anyone would correctly guess this one. To guess the function of a mystery object which is deliberately made to look like an altogether different sort of mystery object completely, is not only difficult but decidedly sneaky. I say again to all of you - 'Well Done!'
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