Colonial Pennsylvania Antique

[Randell]

I need help with this item.  I found it metal detecting about 2 years ago in Pennsylvania.  There is a fort from the French and Indian War near by.  Its brass or bronze.  about the size of a fifty cent piece.  Also the back is pitted but from the people  that I showed it too, they say it looks like it might be a die or a stamp for glass or leather.  Any help would be much appreciated.  The image is from a scanner and it doesnt really show the detail very well.

[fancypants]

Sort of looks like a guy in armor , sitting on something like a hitching post .

There appears to be another figure in the background , to the left of the fellows shoulder .

I'm wondering how thick the metal is ( roughly) ?.?.

[sapphire]

Just trying this out for you to see if it makes it any clearer.........ign ore if it doesn't   

[talesofthesevenseas]

Wow- I've never seen anything quite like that before. That must have been SO exciting to find!! I have no idea what it is, but it is really cool! If it's the size of a fifty cent piece it is pretty large, it seems like a strange thing to be a leather stamp, but I sure don't know what else it could be. Have you got a local museum that could take a look at it?

[Randell]

It's 1 3/4" across by approx 1/2 " think.  It's solid brass or bronze and also the front rim or border is flush with the figure.  That indicates its a stamp/die/mark of some sort.  The local castle is of no help.  I dug it in Brownsville Pa, near the Nemacolon Castle that was known as Fort Burd in the 1700's.  Since it is on the mon river many people passed through there on their journey west.  The castle is of no help because its basically only a tour site and used for spooky tours during the Halloween season.  Any help is much appreciated and I will keep you guys informed if I find out anything.

[fancypants]

I'm going to hazard a guess that perhaps this item might be a component from a French helmet , maybe used as a rivet for a chin-strap .
French helmets were typically made of brass .

The depiction on your item seems like it's a military/livery themed thingie .

Just a shot in the dark , but a possibility .

[Skinny]

He may not be sitting, he could in fact be running. See the way his hat is laid back? Could it be a wax stamp? It would have to be attached to something to be used, some sort of handle.

[sapphire]

I'm going to really go out on a limb here. Keep in mind I just woke up and still haven't had any caffeine.

The back appeared to me to have some sort of 'image' so tried rotating it after making it as clear as I could get.
Maybe it's sleep deprivation, but do I detect three circles?  Is it possible these are button holes?

Like Tales, I saw the figure on the front as running.  Would a messenger or runner have worn some sort of uniform?





Or possibly these are solder marks from being attached to another piece such as a stamp as Tales suggested?



Or.........maybe I just really need that caffeine.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Actually I think he's lounging against the hitching rail, see how his ankles are crossed? It definitely looks like two horse head hitching posts on the ends of the rail, all I can guess is that it was the stamp of someone who was in the livery business, or maybe a farrier. But the size is so large for any kind of stamp, that is the strange part. Being metal I don't think it's a butter stamp or a cookie stamp. For the life of me I can't think what would be stamped so large. Saddles usually have small tooling. You'd have to have a large, flat surface to use a stamp like that.

[Skinny]

It looks a tad short to be a hitching post to me, so I wouldn't make it a forgone conclusion that this is livery themed. I'm not saying it's not by any means, but wouldn't having a horse on it be more appropriate? It's hard to tell if the gentleman is wearing a shirt or a breastplate. It "looks" like a breastplate, but I would expect him to be wearing a helmet as well, and that doesn't look like any kind of helmet I've ever seen. It looks also like maybe some buttons on his shirt (if a shirt it is)? This is a very confusing piece . I still think it might be a wax stamp. It's size, thickness, shape etc are Consistent with that hypothesis. Some wax stamps are  made as one  piece with a short metal handle, and sometimes with a wood or antler handle, or soldered to a separate piece of metal. I dunno, that's the best guess that I have.

I would have been very stoked to find something like this. The only thing I ever found of any interest with my metal detector was an arrowhead next to a piece of rusty trash!  

[cogar]

He may not be sitting, he could in fact be running. See the way his hat is laid back?

I agree, it is a "running" figure. His left arm is extended backward and his right arm extended foreward ..... and left leg is extended foreward and his right leg is extended to his back.

Me thinks that is part of a paper embossing stamp being it is 1/2" thick. And if so, there would have been a "reverse" image for the base of the stamp and the entire mechanism would hve looked something like this, to wit:

[Randell]

Thanks for your input.  I sent pictures to a colonial American expert and it has him stumped also.   The back is actually smoother then it appears from the image.  I scanned it and one of the negative effects to the picture is that, if the picture is not flush with the scanner window then it gets blurry.  There are some dents in the back of it that look or give me the sense when I look at them  to be hammer dents.  I have been doing allot of study and all indication is that its a stamp.  The only thing I can hope is to eventually find something that was stamped with this mark.

The figure is wearing clothing and he is sitting on the post.  If you look at his hands they are holding his balance.  There sadly is a lot of detail missing because of the scanned image.  Thanks again all and I will post any info I get.

[Randell]

Bump

[railman44]

Being as large as it is, could it be a harness stamp?  Harness leather was, depending upon where on the horse it was located, quite wide.  Or, maybe a saddle stamp.  It's not a button and I don't think they had silver soldier back then but I could be wrong. 

[Skinny]

Is there any reason this couldn't be a wax stamp, from some sort of courier service perhaps?