Nice find...in the Carolinas and the western area of "east Virginia," and in the old Cherokee homeland of northeastern Georgia, there were many Highlanders settled after the time of the clearances. This looks like a piece that once decorated a ceremonial "targe" shield. Someone may have saved it after the old leather and wood targe rotted away, perhaps, decorated a riflestock or a drum with it...I have found 17 century Scottish relics in these areas myself, so you never know. My best is a pewter one pint toasting cup, a "Quackie," with whale tail handles. Onle two are known anywhere, though these were once very common. I also found a late 17th or early 18th century silver bonnet pin for holding a cockade...possibly worn by a CW or revolutionary war cavalry trooper in emulation of a Jacobite Cavalier ancestor.
