It’s #whatsitwednesday!
Be the first to guess what the pictured item is by leaving a comment below. If you have your own whatsit, our editors can include it in a future post. Please send an email to editor@kovels.com and attach a clear picture, the size and any markings. Hopefully, we will be able to identify it for our readers!
The pictured item is 3 inches tall by 4 1/2 inches wide.
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Photo: Matthew Bullock Auctioneers
21 responses to “It’s #whatsitwednesday!”
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It is a postage stamp holder. At least that is how I use mine..
Answer from Kovels: This is a Victorian humidor in the form of cellar doors. It is silver plate with a cedar lining and has a mark on the bottom for Derby Silver Plate Co. / International Silver Co.
I’m going to guess that this is a salesman’s sample for a specific cellar door. Maybe as a shelter from tornado’s, or possibly for an added security measure, so criminals couldn’t just get into one’s basements!
A miniature, of an actual, working cellar door.
Im going to keep my days worth of cigars on my desk so I don’t have to have my big humidor taking up space.
I think it’s a Salt Cellar.
Too small for butter or cheese so it could be a big salt “Cellar”…..or a stamp dish, wet sponge in the cellar to wet roll your stamps.
Miniature bulkhead replica trinket box
This faux wood curio is a paperweight with dual purpose: Open the cellar door and stash your paper clips, rubber bands, et al.
Small size suggests it might be a sales sample of a sloped exterior door access to utility meter, root cellar, coal chute, basement or other ground-level room under a house.
? snuff box
I believe this little box is a gift box for either earrings or a pin.
Visiting card holder
Salesman sample of cellar door or emergency shelter that would be attached to the outside of a building for entry into a underground area.
I think this is one half of a book end! Pls notify me of comments
I think this is one half of a book end!
It’s a note box that was mounted by your front door. When someone came to visit you and you weren’t home they would leave you a note inside. There is paper and a pencil inside.
My initial thought is that this looks like a replica of an angled coal chute for delivering coal to the basement furnace that I remember from my grandparents’ house! Maybe it is a cute little storage box for storing seed packets? I’m sure there will be a variety of guesses for this WhatsitWednesday!
Here’s my wild guess, a yeast box. The wooden box is soaked in water and then live yeast was put into the wet box.. The wet wood keep the yeast cool just like butter dishes filled with water do, except the water is drained before placing yeast in it. I am looking forward to finding out what it really is.
Cellar door salesman’s sample?
Hmmm? It could be a coin bank, or perhaps a cigarette holder.
Whelp, it looks like a tiny silver plated cellar door. Why anyone would want/need one this tiny or fancy, I have no idea!