✅ SOLVED Help with a decorative piece

[fishstick]

Got another one for y'all. Gold plated, mother of pearl inlay on top with fancy all over it. Says pat Mar 30 1880. No threading but has 2 small openings on opposite sides.

 

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[Blackfoot58]

Got another one for y'all. Gold plated, mother of pearl inlay on top with fancy all over it. Says pat Mar 30 1880. No threading but has 2 small openings on opposite sides. View attachment 2085216 View attachment 2085217 View attachment 2085218 View attachment 2085219

Is it March? I’m seeing MOH or MGH, but it’s not very clear. Did you look up patents from 1880? Resembles a ladies snuff box lid. Good luck

 

[creskol]

Pretty! Looks like the lid to an old pill box.

 

[fishstick]

No I have not. I wouldn't know where to start lol. I'll have to look up ladies snuff and pill box lids. Thx for the info

 

[fishstick]

Just looked up finger snuff boxes. Y'all might be on to something there.

 

[Red-Coat]

Interesting item. It’s the top part of what is known as a ‘solitaire’, spring stud or ‘bachelor button’. First patented in 1872 by George West as “Fasteners for Collars and Cuffs” and then covered by a multitude of design patents by West and others through to about 1890

There were huge numbers of variation in design but relying on the same principle: two winged projections which, when depressed, release their hold on a central shank so that the back and front are completely separate and can be easily put through various thickness of shirt and collar before being snapped firmly together.

West was the most prolific manufacturer but there are also Greaves’ Patent, W. E. Wiley and Sons, F. Moore, Hales Patent, Reading, F. F. Abbey, S. Alford, D. Cutler, ‘Perfect Action’, Appleby and Stamps’ Patent and Atkins’ Improved Patent.

Solitaires were made in a wide variety of materials such as gold, silver, mother of pearl, glass (painted, moulded and cut), brass, agate, moss agate, malachite, ‘imitation stones’, jet, bog oak and combinations of silver inlaid with gold, jet and mother of pearl. This one, with a Masonic emblem and an onyx inlay has exactly the same patent reference as yours (MCH 30, 1880), but I don’t know whether the maker was West or one of the others.

 

[fishstick]

Thank you so much Red Coat!! The way you explain your post are truly impressive. It's crazy some of the things we pull from the dirt that we never would've thgt about before hand.

 

[oldmxrat]

Dang R-C, how do you come up with this stuff? Simply amazing!

 

[fishstick]

Would've never thgt it was a button. I don't believe I've seen any posted and if so would like to see it.