September 3, 2010

An old piece of Americana at the Sloane-Stanley Museum, but what is it?

The Sloane-Stanley Museum in Kent, Connecticut, is a terrific place to see not only old tools, but also unusual pieces of Americana from Eric Sloane’s collection. The following is but one very unusual piece – can you guess what it is? As displayed in the collection:

what-is-it

No guessing is allowed, unless you wish to guess. And the prize for the correct answer is recognition of your correct answer in a future blog entry, plus something else.

Deadline to submit your answer as a Comment to this blog article: Midnight of Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (one week from today). I will have to determine what the real prize will be – very likely, an item on display on the walls of the shop.

As Sandy and I were meandering at the Museum, a gentleman walked in and was greeted by Museum personnel. I overheard him mention he had in his car a piece he would love to have Museum employees evaluate, and give him an opinion on it. He brought in the artifact, and placed it on the counter by the entrance door. I asked his permission to photograph it, and he allowed me to snap some photos – I include here the following two photos:

What is it?

meat-grinder

I hope these last two photos will help with your “guesses”. Thanks for playing – I look forward to all your entries in the next few days!

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—— Al Navas

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About Al Navas
I live in NW Missouri, and I love making furniture for my clients. Please let me know if you are interested in buying an item similar to those in the Photo Gallery - I would love to work with you, to design your item!

Comments

  1. Jeff BranchNo Gravatar says:

    I am going to say that it was a early attempt at a beater bar for a vacuum cleaner.

  2. WoodworkingNo Gravatar says:

    It has to be a grinder of some sort, of what sort is a whole other matter lol.

  3. A cotton jig???

  4. SteveNo Gravatar says:

    I am going to guess that this was a tool for grinding chestnuts, hazelnuts, or butternuts.

  5. NephitaNo Gravatar says:

    Greetings from Brazil!

    I´m guessing that´s a meat grinder or some other kind of grinder.

    Cheers

  6. Bob EastonNo Gravatar says:

    Well, there are no monkeys, so it must not be an organ grinder’s barrel organ.

    And… since there’s no input bowl, I guess it’s not a cherry pitter either.

    I won’t hazard other guesses.