Topic: And tonight's mystery object is ?

[essi]

The colour of this dish reminded me of Stromberg glass but i have been looking at there catalogues and can not find such a thing.
It is 158mm in diameter and 70mm high.
Polished pontil mark and wear on the base.
Any thoughts on its purpose or who manufactured it gratefully appreciated.
Tim

[bat20]

First thought was a lid …then read the bit about the wear on the base ? ..ashtray with a stubber ?

[essi]

Thanks for the reply.
I never thought of the central feature as a stubber.
An ashtray had crossed my mind and the central feature was a more hygienic method of picking it up ?
I saw some pressed glass ashtrays with a central lifter.
Feels a nice piece of glass in the hand.
Tim

[flying free]

I wouldn't have thought ashtray to be honest as any cig would just slide straight into it without notches on the edge.
It could be, but would have been a very annoying item to use!

Desk tidy?  paperweight with upper side for paperclips etc?  bowl for olives?

m

[Ekimp]

A linen smoother?

[flying free]

Good shout Ekimp but I'm not sure the short handle and shape fit with that.  I don't know for sure though and the only reason I'm commenting is that I have a very old linen smoother (black glass, 1800s maybe older) and did lots of reading into this because I also acquired a paperweight that I thought might be a glass linen smoother type thing.  Paperweight turned out to be just a paperweight with a knop handle.  Funnily enough the linen smoother/paperweight shape is what made me suggest paperweight with area for paper clips.


The Corning do show this one with a short handle however because of the convex curve of the body I can imagine being able to use this to smooth.  It would hold well with a flat hand pushing down on the surface.  Essi's shape wouldn't work because of the concave shape I don't think?
https://www.cmog.org/artwork/linen-smoother

[Ekimp]

Just a guess I had a quick look online before posting and didn’t think it looked that much like others. I suppose the knob on the top must be about 4cm diameter so that could go in your palm with the stem between your fingers, so you could press down and slide it around.

It’s not very decorative for a desk paperweight? Maybe for sewing - to hold cloth in place while being pinned with pins held in the tray (if that’s a thing).

[chopin-liszt]

It would get in the way of being able to get a pin placed correctly to hold bits of material together.
Something for the kitchen? Not that I can think of anything more than something to flatten shortbread with and I've never heard of shortbread flatteners. 
I do think it is a flattener of some sort.

[essi]

Thanks to everyone for there input.
After looking at linen smoothing images on line I'm coming round to that train of thought.
Ekimp, the knob on top is 40mm diameter and in between the the thumb and the index finger it feels just right to be making large sweeping movements they speak about for
smoothing linen. the recess in the top allows the other fingers some space.
The large bottom edge radius would aid the smoothing.
I will try and get a picture of the bottom wear marks as i have convinced myself that there are lines in the wear and not the normal matt finish you see.
What i have written above may be complete nonsense but food for thought.
Tim

[chopin-liszt]

What about a flattener for burgers?
Take a metal ring, shove the measure of meat paste into that, then tamp it down into shape with this, which would fit inside the ring?