🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Some random relics need some help with- Relic #2- Probably just the top to some sort of alcohol?

[perdidogringo]

Hi All,

So I'm pretty sure this is just the top to a bottle of alcohol but I can't find it online. It says "Stearns" on it with a logo I don't recognize. Does anyone recognize it and can give a time period estimate?

 

[perdidogringo]

Nothing on this item yet? I thought this was going to be easily identified by someone saying it was from a bottle of booze not produced anymore. I've never heard of a Stearns alcohol, though.

 

[Red-Coat]

I have no idea what it might be, but I think it relates to the Stearns-Knight automobile company. They made luxury cars in Cleveland, Ohio and used the ‘Stearns’ branding between 1900-1911.

Compare to the shield the knight is holding on these radiator emblems. I see the same three heraldic crosslets separated by an inverted chevron... and possibly an eagle at the top.

 

[perdidogringo]

I have no idea what it might be, but I think it relates to the Stearns-Knight automobile company. They made luxury cars in Cleveland, Ohio and used the ‘Stearns’ branding between 1900-1911.

Compare to the shield the knight is holding on these radiator emblems. I see the same three heraldic crosslets separated by an inverted chevron... and possibly an eagle at the top.

View attachment 2208604
View attachment 2208606

Wow, that's some great detective work! No wonder I couldn't find any Stearns alcohol products! Now I am wondering what the item I found was used for. A cover for something or perhaps a push-button for some purpose?

 

[pepperj]

Hi All,

So I'm pretty sure this is just the top to a bottle of alcohol but I can't find it online. It says "Stearns" on it with a logo I don't recognize. Does anyone recognize it and can give a time period estimate?

View attachment 2208300

Just Google Stearns manufacturing and other options come up as well.
That's made of aluminum?
Being early 1900 wouldn't look at all like that condition.

 

[perdidogringo]

Just Google Stearns manufacturing and other options come up as well.
That's made of aluminum?
Being early 1900 wouldn't look at all like that condition.

Yeah, I did Google it several times and found no matches. Red-Coat's matching of logo details and the Stearns name (plus it's within the time period of the site I am detecting) is compelling. Yes it is aluminum.

 

[Red-Coat]

Just Google Stearns manufacturing and other options come up as well.

With that same coat of arms logo?

 

[searcher]

That appears to be the Stearns family crest/ coat of arms.

 

[pepperj]

With that same coat of arms logo?

That I don't know.
It's something you can look up.
From digging aluminum for 55 yrs anything pre WWll is pretty grotty looking.

 

[searcher]

This may be nothing...
Look at the logo in the middle of this stearns aspirin tin

I'm not suggesting it's an aspirin lid.

I'm wondering if it's a top of one of their other medicines, tonics etc.

 

[pepperj]

Yeah, I did Google it several times and found no matches. Red-Coat's matching of logo details and the Stearns name (plus it's within the time period of the site I am detecting) is compelling. Yes it is aluminum.

Looking at this item and the aluminum souvenir from this World's fair.
That's usually the way aluminum looks that has a hundred years of environmental damage.
To date this to 1900-1911 for the Stearns Auto manufacturer and the condition of the item, just don't add up.

The other division of Stearns manufacturing was this.

https://www.stearnsflotation.com/about-us.html

Just a thought is I wonder if this was part of a container that held a supplement product. Waterproofing substance, promotional item.
Even a nose plug/clip.

 

[potsherd_creek]

OP, anything left on the other side, threads, coarse, fine or just smooth hollow?

 

[Almy]

Aluminum requires so much energy to smelt that it was a precious metal until large scale hydroelectric power generated sufficient electricity for the smelting. Trouble is, I'm not sure exactly when that was, but suspect it was later than 1911. Someone else might know. That would help put an earliest possible date on the artifact.

 

[Red-Coat]

Aluminum requires so much energy to smelt that it was a precious metal until large scale hydroelectric power generated sufficient electricity for the smelting. Trouble is, I'm not sure exactly when that was, but suspect it was later than 1911. Someone else might know. That would help put an earliest possible date on the artifact.

The first industrial process for Aluminium production in America was developed in 1886 but aluminium didn't see use for 'everyday' utilitarian items until the 1890s and wasn't in common use until the mid-20th Century.

 

[Blackfoot58]

I believe it is a Stearns talcum powder lid.

 

[perdidogringo]

OP, anything left on the other side, threads, coarse, fine or just smooth hollow?

Here's the back of the item (circled it in red). It's hollow and the sides have been bent inwards.

 

[pepperj]

Here's the back of the item (circled it in red). It's hollow and the sides have been bent inwards.

View attachment 2209240

The one item on the right looks like part of a match safe.

 

[perdidogringo]

The one item on the right looks like part of a match safe.

It's a vintage cigarette case: https://www.ebay.com/itm/145556551485?gQT=1

Well, half of one anyway.