🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Hunk of lead with thing on back?

[HeatherM]

I’ve looked at this until I’m cross-eyed. I thought it was just melted lead but it has a shank or something on the back and I swear a raised design on part of it. I see little lines in a raised area. Could it be feathers?? 😝😝
Found at 1700s house where I’ve found early 1800s military buttons.

 

[ncsuwolf]

If it was once “something” it had a run in with some high temps. I’ve found camp lead similar (without the iron thing). That design vaguely resembles rodent teeth. Rats/squirrels/etc are known to chew lead.

 

[russau]

I've seen squirles chewing on my aluminum gutters before! I eleive they are sharpening their teeth !

 

[ticndig]

someone spilled the ladle. what the hot lead landed on is what's imbedded on the surface.

 

[Digger54]

Many years ago I was detecting in a Civil War picket site and dug this melt of .69 bullets. About 30 yards away I also dug a disc of lead which was about six inches across and about one inch deep at the center. It obviously came out of a cast iron pot. Being a fisherman who casts my own weights I reused the disc as there was nothing in it or by appearance able to distinguish any relation to age.

You can either hold on to your melt as a memory of the dig or you can melt it down in a pot and skim off what ever objects are embedded in the melt for ID.

 

[ncsuwolf]

someone spilled the ladle. what the hot lead landed on is what's imbedded on the surface.

View attachment 2258502

When we make egg sinkers we use finish nails in the mold to form the holes in each sinker. Could have been that or what’s left of a ring on a pyramid or bell sinker

 

[ncsuwolf]

I've seen squirles chewing on my aluminum gutters before! I eleive they are sharpening their teeth !

My understanding with lead is that they’re chewing it for salt

 

[HeatherM]

If it was once “something” it had a run in with some high temps. I’ve found camp lead similar (without the iron thing). That design vaguely resembles rodent teeth. Rats/squirrels/etc are known to chew lead.

Yes, I figured it's been chewed on but the little lines all symmetrical in one area made me think they were intentional.

 

[HeatherM]

someone spilled the ladle. what the hot lead landed on is what's imbedded on the surface.

View attachment 2258502

Very interesting. Would not have thought of that. Why were people pouring so much lead at old houses? Making just bullets??

 

[ncsuwolf]

Very interesting. Would not have thought of that. Why were people pouring so much lead at old houses? Making just bullets??

Bullets, sinkers, doing plumbing work…….no telling

 

[Red-Coat]

Very interesting. Would not have thought of that. Why were people pouring so much lead at old houses? Making just bullets??

Bullets, sinkers, doing plumbing work…….no telling

Not saying it's what you have, but in olden times and especially in rural areas, it was common for crude lead toys to be home-cast.

By the early 1900s it had become a business, with imported moulds from German companies being promoted in postal catalogues, and then later moulds from US companies such as the Rapaport brothers.

Early moulds produced flat or semi-flat figures of things like farm animals and soldiers, but with a base so they stood up properly, and things like doll-house accessories.

These from the Home Foundry Manufacturing Company of Chicago, circa 1930s by which time moulds were becoming more three-dimensional and with a wider variety of subjects:

 

[HeatherM]

Not saying it's what you have, but in olden times and especially in rural areas, it was common for crude lead toys to be home-cast.

By the early 1900s it had become a business, with imported moulds from German companies being promoted in postal catalogues, and then later moulds from US companies such as the Rapaport brothers.

Early moulds produced flat or semi-flat figures of things like farm animals and soldiers, but with a base so they stood up properly, and things like doll-house accessories.

These from the Home Foundry Manufacturing Company of Chicago, circa 1930s by which time moulds were becoming more three-dimensional and with a wider variety of subjects:

View attachment 2258627
View attachment 2258628

Interesting, thank you for sharing!

 

[snaps]

I’ve looked at this until I’m cross-eyed. I thought it was just melted lead but it has a shank or something on the back and I swear a raised design on part of it. I see little lines in a raised area. Could it be feathers?? 😝😝
Found at 1700s house where I’ve found early 1800s military buttons.

I've found some pretty crude bridal rossettes that kinda resemble your thingy there

 

[Almy]

The lead carbonate and sulfate that forms on the surface of lead, making a white coating, is sweet. The same compounds were used in lead pigments for paint. The sweet taste is the reason children sucked or chewed items, like cribs, painted with white lead paint. Maybe the animals like the sweet taste too.

 

[HeatherM]

I've found some pretty crude bridal rossettes that kinda resemble your thingy there

That’s what I kept wondering if it might be. Seems a bit big but maybe off a saddle?

 

[sibbley]

The lead carbonate and sulfate that forms on the surface of lead, making a white coating, is sweet. The same compounds were used in lead pigments for paint. The sweet taste is the reason children sucked or chewed items, like cribs, painted with white lead paint. Maybe the animals like the sweet taste too.

I have been told that pigs chew on bullets because they have a sweet taste.

 

[snaps]

I’ve looked at this until I’m cross-eyed. I thought it was just melted lead but it has a shank or something on the back and I swear a raised design on part of it. I see little lines in a raised area. Could it be feathers?? 😝😝
Found at 1700s house where I’ve found early 1800s military buttons.

Here's what your piece reminded me of. Thought I spotted a remnant of a fastener on yours, brass maybe?

 

[HeatherM]

Here's what your piece reminded me of. Thought I spotted a remnant of a fastener on yours, brass maybe?

Yes mine has something sticking out of the back. A bit corroded to see exactly what. I can see similarities with yours!