I Bought It But What Is It? - Union Porcelain Works, dates to 1877

[talesofthesevenseas]

I am mystified on this point. It is not glued and not threaded. It does not turn within the porcelain base, but it does slide up and down. Photos are on the way.

[Oceans64]

Hmmm...  Maybe it fits in, and then you turn it to lock it into place.  That doesn't explain my thought very well but...
Can you pull on it and then twist the bottom around? Maybe you can feel a slot in the porcelain that the wood fit into originally then perhaps they wet the wood repeatedly so it would swell...

Make sense?

[talesofthesevenseas]

That does make sense Oceans.

Here are the photos:

Overall shape of the handle. Notice the slightly irregular cattywhompus shape:



Bottom surface. Notice wear on edges, no wear when it becomes slightly concave, wear in the very center by the logo where it has a "high spot"





Sitting on a flat surface, notice how the high spot causes it to rock a little, arrow on the right shows how the right side is lifting:



Wear on the top and handle lifted up about 1/8" as far out as it will go.



What I think are faint tool marks. Arrows show the direction of the marks, which seem to run contrary to the direction of the wood grain.








And just showing some age to the wood, some shrinkage along the grain.

[mariok54]

This is very frustrating.. The profile of the flat plane, as you describe it, seems to ring a bell... but I think the bell tower is far, far away

[waywardangler]

A wax seal squisher?  I like Oceans idea of a keyed slot holding the wood in.  I would try turning and pulling (gently) to see if it is keyed.  The roughness of the porcelain where it fits the wood troubles me a bit.  Maybe that handle (or any handle) is not original and the original use has nothing to do with a handle on it.  The marks on the wood are indicative of a file (bastard file perhaps) used for final finishing of the wood surface.  No wood worker or company would use a file like that for a final finish but a tinker would. 

[KC]

I'm back to my first hunch....butter press for the butter mold we discussed!!!!!!!!!

[talesofthesevenseas]

I tried turning it, feeling for a slot. There is nothing I can feel and it only turns about 1/8". I don't want to force it. Interesting that it seems to have a replacement handle!

[KC]

Not that unusual....if it was used a lot and the old handle split.....it was little cost to replace the handle versus replacing the porcelain!

And we are sure it is a replacement?

[talesofthesevenseas]

I dunno KC. It seems a little crude for a company making high end porcelain oyster plates. However, I looked all the way around the top of the porcelain, letting light shine in there and there's no keyway. No slot. The handle is also NOT glued onto the wood that is down in porcelain. It's all a single piece. It's got to have a flange or bump or something, similar to small teapot lids to keep them from falling off.

[waywardangler]

Know any dentists that will x-ray this for you?

[talesofthesevenseas]

My small-town dentist probably would if I had it when I went in to get my teeth done, LOL! I might just do that.

I don't know if this is a clue or not but UPW also made porcelain line insullators. They were doing hard-paste porcelain at one point which is fired under high heat and is almost non-porous so it doesn't require glazing. Mine looks glazed. I don't know if this could be related to them or not, but they did do some very utilitarian stuff in addition to fancy things.

[Oceans64]

Are we sure its not an oyster whacker?

I just read a 1920's advertisement about workers "hammering" oysters so apparently it was/is done that way. I wouldn't think you would have to hit em that hard to crack the shell. Would also be a good reason why many haven't survived!

Update...  Then again, I just looked at porcelain insulators. It does look like 1/2 of one put on a stick.

http://www.r-infinity.com/Standard_Porcelain_Insulators/MainPage.htm

[talesofthesevenseas]

The source those photos came from did show several made by UPW. It does bear a resemblance. Maybe it is some kind of tool to install something and not get zapped?

[Oceans64]

You could ask this guy

http://www.islandregister.com/phones/co.html

See the comments link at top on right.  He seems to know a bit about insulators

[waywardangler]

I highly doubt it is an insulator.  Insulators need to be attached thus the hole through the center for a screw fastener.  They also need a groove for the wire that is run over them.  There is no groove.  Porcelain is an excellent non-conductor of electricity but this does not appear to be for an insulating purpose. If someone could locate a UPW catalog or a hardware catalog from 1880, this conundrum could be solved.

And why isn't this a potato masher as was thought before?  "Potato mashers are often rounded heavy wooden objects with handles and flat bottoms."  from http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/museum/object_075.html