Small cupped brass object

[Jeff H]

Hi folks, I found this small brass (I think) item the other day at a site that has seen activity from 1700's to present. If you'll notice, the inside has some fine spin lines and some small gouged marks. The hole in the base of the cone extends about 3/16 of an inch (roughly half way) into the stem. There are no exterior markings. Any ideas ?

 

[johnnyi]

Really interesting find Jeff, and I agree those marks seem very telling. Just a guess, but the taper of the square base (I think the square part was the base) seems to be designed so it could be removed easily from whatever it sat in, as there do not seem to be holes for securing. I'm wondering if it could be what you sometimes find on a larger scale with anvils; smaller devices which lay in the hardy hole to form specific items. Could this possibly be part of a device which would form a grommet to a piece of cloth or leather and it had a guide pin on the other half?, or maybe something used to shore up a brass rivet against the washer before the final step of beating it flat?? Trouble is it's brass, and could not stand a lot of banging around which is what bothers me about this guess.

If it is a very old type of rivet anvil, here are a couple links to scans of somewhat similar modern day devices (but for flat, not domed rivets). It's conceivable I guess that this thing of your's (if it is a rivet anvil) could have done double duty.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...rivet+anvil&ndsp=21&hl=en&sa=N&start=105&um=1

http://www.leathernaturally.com/catalog/TOOLS_files/8a780810.jpg