Looks like part of the device patented as a “curtain cord tightener” by Chauncey C. Parker of Brooklyn, NY:
View attachment 2103956
"Cord-pulley's for curtain fixtures have heretofore been made with a spring, which yields or expands as the cord may slacken or tighten under atmospheric influences. They have, however, been constructed so as to have a very different appearance from the ordinary rack-pulley, and the cost of manufacture was enhanced. The nature of my said invention consists in a pulley-slide having two arms at right angles to each other, one arm receiving the pulley and the other extending up within the coils of a helical spring contained in a sheet-metal case, which arm becomes the guide and sustains the pulley, allowing it to slide with but little friction as the cord may contract or expand."