Biplane sterling vesta match safe

[Lord Verdigris]

I was driving around for work and had some time to kill so i took a dirt side road where i was told a foundation was by a local fisherman. In no time i spotted where it had to be so parked and went in. It was a big area but i found the house foundation and later on a big barn foundation. After a hour i had to go but it produced some positive signs. I know there is way older finds and i feel i literally just scratched the surface there. Sucks its over 2 hour drive from home but i do work there twice a year for awhile . I found some buttons, pocket watch, 1919 large cent, a weird thing that says “O.D. Shank pat.1905” and the find of the hour which was a nice sterling silver match safe with a picture of a early biplane flying over a landscape scene. Maybe someone will id the exact model of the plane but there are a few that look very close. To bad the top is missing but i will for sure try to look for it next time. The only thing i could find on the “weird thing” is a online a picture of them with a type of key that says they are horse toe weights? Mine has a number 4 so maybe its a size? Thanks for looking! [emoji2][emoji106]

 

[Lord Verdigris]

The sterling mark on the rim suggest that as you suggested ,it could have been a generic case , that was hand chased / engraved , as a custom piece . It should be noted here that a sterling stamp as such is obtainable these days at any local jewelers supply ( I have one myself ) but in 1903 or 1905 when this case was made , such a stamp was likely available to the jewelry manufacturing trade and much less so to the hobbyist / home crafter . Clearly this is just my opinion - I could be mistaken on all of this !

When i looked hard last night i thought generic case. What makes me now doubt hand carved also is each side is like a mirror image. Wouldn’t even a expert make some little mistakes by hand?

 

[park pirate]

Awesome man...

 

[No gold in NY]

I too love that biplane match safe. A real treasure. I love biplanes! Have built and flown three of them in my flying days.

 

[sandchip]

Great finds. I love the match safe, but was hoping that somebody knew what the OD Shank thing is. Looks like it was keyed to fit a mating piece. Cool find whatever it is.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on some nice finds. I like that match safe.

 

[Lord Verdigris]

Great finds. I love the match safe, but was hoping that somebody knew what the OD Shank thing is. Looks like it was keyed to fit a mating piece. Cool find whatever it is.

Thanks. It is a horse foot weight. Heres some info...
“www.americanfarriers.com wrote:
Not entirely a thing of the past, toe weights are definitely less common than they used to be. A common thought when applying toe weights is to get the horse to "reach more." This implies producing a longer stride.
Another reason is to help stabilize the gait of a trotter through the additional weight, although this is typically done with heavier shoes or bell boots. I almost never see horses wearing all three anymore (toe weights, heavy shoes, and bell boots). The reason being is that if a trotter needs all three added weight elements to stay on gait, it will probably not compete at a high level.”

 

[dts52]

Great finds!
HH
dts

 

[Argentium]

In looking at the images on both sides ,while the subject matter is the same ,it appears that there are small differences...

 

[Vldetecting]

Nice finds! That site looked exactly like my sites I'm used to hit and the finds are quite similar to my finds I'm used to!

 

[Lord Verdigris]

In looking at the images on both sides ,while the subject matter is the same ,it appears that there are small differences...

I was beat last night looking so i hope your right. If you see a good spot on it to see the difference point it out to me! [emoji106]

 

[against the wind]

Great save on the Silver Match Case. That was a very productive hunt. Well worth a 2 hour drive for an all day hunt.
Congrats

 

[Steve in PA]

Very cool!

 

[Argentium]

K1DDO1979, Look at the guy in the back of the canoe - I'm seeing clear differences in his pose. Also the birds over the house look slightly different in position to me ...interesting !

 

[Lord Verdigris]

I still wish i could id the actual plane in the picture. There are very similar ones of the time frame like the Bristol box kite, Voisin bi plane, etc.
But then maybe its just a close example but not off a actual plane.

 

[scaupus]

awesome find. Early flight, hard to beat that. It's probably a close copy of a real plane. Maybe local area records, like newspapers, would have a story about it; that graphic is probably a record of an actual very early flight in that area. Putting it all together would be a trip, and in addition could add $ value to it.

 

[jeff of pa]

The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. (Richmond, Ind.), 02 June 1907.



The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, June 02, 1907, Page Page Two, Image 2 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratulations on the very nice relic finds!

 

[cambria09]

Hello K1DDO1979. That biplane match safe is over the top and silver too...NICE!! Good Luck out there. C9

 

[Lord Verdigris]

All this time i didn’t take a good look at the bottom striker. Looks like it had some good use in its day! [emoji2][emoji106]