A small entertainment

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leonardturner
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A small entertainment

Post by leonardturner »

I propose a brief small entertainment by asking for your identification of this small, moderately old, man-made object that has graced the shelves in the area now devoted to my macro photography for many years, sitting alongside my model cars. I only recently saw it as a possible subject. Not cleaned up before shooting and stacking. Additional images will be posted shortly in lower magnification that will make things clearer. I expect no one will identify the object from this first picture. Clue: not compound, but nevertheless an eye.
PMax 0293-0335WCDen.jpg
Mitty 10X, image further cropped
Trond lighting

Leonard

Cyclops
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by Cyclops »

A little fish ornament?
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Troels
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by Troels »

The golden surface looks like a polished mineral of some sort.
The dark rounded shape show some crystal structures supporting the idea of a mineral origin.
The question is: How is this brown structure made? It looks as if it is elevated. but that could be just a matter of the direction of light.
My guess is, that the shape is engraved and not elevated.

You mention an eye. Could it be an engraved or etched eye on a small stone animal? A souvenir, an amulet, a toy?
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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leonardturner
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by leonardturner »

It might amuse a bored fish, Cyclops, but that was not why it was created. Some good observations, Troels; you are getting closer. here is a lower magnification view which should resolve some issues, but perhaps not all.
Leonard

PMax 8188-8677 copyWCDenCDen.jpg

MarkSturtevant
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by MarkSturtevant »

That looks like a skull face. Some sort of decoration.
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Cyclops
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by Cyclops »

Now I'm thinking its something ceramic. Pottery with a skull motif
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope

leonardturner
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by leonardturner »

Ahh--you are very warm. It is a skull face--a skull with crossbones, in fact, as is revealed in the partially masked stack from today. But not ceramic, and not decorative in its original purpose. The approximate dimensions are 15.5 X 19 mm for the part shown here, with an overall length of about 24 mm. This last dimension was quite critical for its intended use, although I only recently discovered why.


PMax 9217-9283 copyWCDen.jpg

Troels
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by Troels »

A seal ring or signet stamp?
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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leonardturner
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Re: A small entertainment

Post by leonardturner »

PMax 9217-9283 copyWCDenF.jpg
OK, close enough. A skull indeed, metal (I suspect a copper alloy) mounted on a wooden block. Too long to be part of a signet ring but the right length to be used for letterpress printing, basically a more modern modification of the 15th century Gutenberg press. These printer's blocks were placed in the correct (reverse) order to produce the words and images on paper, and required a uniform depth of .918 inches.

So, a workhorse instead of a merely decorative item in its original use. I suspect that it might have been used to print the graphic warning of dangerous contents on container labels, an earlier forerunner of the modern wordy description of all the various dangers that might befall the user of some product. I recall seeing similar images on bottles of antiseptic iodine, and have an old bottle of laboratory methyl alcohol that I had planned to photograph to show here, only to find that insects had destroyed that part of the label. Alternatively, since I found it in a small shop on the Florida coast, it might have been used to produce some sort or pirate related images, but I like this possibility less.

Thanks for looking and commenting,

Leonard

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