Topic: Strange "paperweight" (?)

[josordoni]

Does that mean that because I am in England, all my Chinese paperweights are really English!  Oh how wonderful! 

Fortunes to be made!

[Anne]

And, since the seller is from Germany, the primary provenance is that it's German made.

Interesting the assumptions people make, isn't it, when a webpage is in another language? The listing is actually on ebay.ch which is (I believe) the Swiss eBay site, hence the German language, but the seller is actually here in the UK.

[Glen]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140125587516

[Lustrousstone]

Ah but it's our friend Wuff in Switzerland. We'll await the pictures with interest

[Wuff]

Well - I agree - it's certainly not worth a lot, but strange, and I like strange things: I always want to find out more about them. So it's strange and interesting - but I never guessed it would be THAT interesting! At least I got a lively discussion started  !

As Glen and Lustrousstone point out correctly: the seller is registered in the UK (and his description is in English), and the link got the CH bit on it (plus some basic ebay text in German) because I enter ebay via their Swiss web page. This doesn't imply anything about the origin of the item, of course.

I'll post a more detailed description, and possibly a couple of pictures, once I got the item - and will always appreciate any comment on it.

Thanks to all  -  Wuff

[karelm]

Wuff,
A total shot in the dark, lets say a speculation based on the ship attribution.  Could it be that the top disk is the paperweight, to hold down a chart from curling up and the bottom is in fact a magnifying glass to read fine detail on a map?  Both being heavy not to slide of the map table when the ship tosses around at sea.
Anycase an intresting (set of) weight(s)
Kind regards,
Karel Marais

[Wuff]

The "mystery item" hass arrived - unfortunately badly damaged due to poor packing, but I would nevertheless be interested to learn more about it.

The larger (let me call it "bottom") part has two (identical) flat sides - a "standing ring" and a concave "inner surface" - looking a bit like a doughnut:
(click on image for larger view)

The smaller (let me call it "top") part is domed with a flat base:

It does have some magnifying effect - but it's too thick and has rounded edges, which would make it a badly designed magnifying lens.

Now the interesting fact is that the radius of curvature is identical for both parts - if put together differently (as by the seller)

the top part will rotate smoothly: I assume this is designed to allow leveling of e.g. a small measuring instrument on a slanting surface. I am not convinced, however, that it has been designed (specifically) for use on a ship: to compensate a ship's movement, this adjustment would have to take place fast and "automatically" - which this item will not do (too much friction to work on gravity alone).

Does anyone have further information on such items - or an alternative explanation?

[Frank]

Not a paperweight for sure and your logic regarding ship use makes perfect sense.

I would suspect that this is almost certainly another alternative style of Battery Rest insulator, the ability to move would allow absolute evenness in support if four of these were used, one on each corner.

Sad it got damaged as it is probably of great rarity and possibly substantial monetary value. The rarity is likely to make the damage not too important.

[josordoni]

Wuff, does the domed part fit smoothly into the concave part?  I'm wondering if it is the  kind of mortar used by a chemist for grinding powders very finely?

[karelm]

I would suspect that this is almost certainly another alternative style of Battery Rest insulator, the ability to move would allow absolute evenness in support if four of these were used, one on each corner.

Frank,
Could you expand on "Battery Rest insulator"  I can deduct what you mean but I have not heard the term before.
Kind regards
KarelM
PS: Wolf I hope you are getting your damage refunded by the sellor!