BEACH FIND UNKNOWN ITEM

[daverave]

i found this item in the photos on the beach and it looks hand made and inside it is full of hard wax...can anyone give me any idea what this item may be ?????

[tonyh]

Ermmm, a candle holder?

[daverave]

MEASUREMENTS OF UNKNOWN ITEM

the item is 25mm long by 10mm across...could it still be a candle holder even though its so very small ????

[tellome]

It look like a collar of carrier pigeon !?

[tonyh]

interesting item, I would be tempted to put it in the oven and melt the wax out. What it made of? ferrous or non ferrous?
Could be a sealing wax holder?

[daverave]

its non ferrous and im not sure what its made of but i can see its hand made and maybe over 100 years old...it came from an area where we have ancient ship wrecks.....the wax inside is a black colour.

[Skippy]

I also think the wax is to seal something inside the container, like a message. For future reference, could you resize your photos to about 1000 pixels width? These huge (2500 pixel wide) ones just have 1600 pixels hanging off the right-hand side of my screen.

[daverave]

[tellome]

I think it was build in brass (the color of the oxidation).
It look like a colar of carrier pigeon.

[daverave]

i think your right about it being a colar although the ones i saw on the net were aluminium and plastic and used in war time to send messages by pidgeon....do you think it has any value and a friend said not to remove the wax seal cause of any message inside which maybe of some history value.

[golfnut]

Take it to a larger museum - before you melt the wax...

It is more useful as it is.


It may be a wartime message from france to UK or VVersa.

Test for silver, wet a small square of ally foil with saliva and hold it around the item - after 30 seconds smell it. If eggy, its silver - then probably not carrier pigoen holder.

S

[Ferric Toes]

I think it was build in brass (the color of the oxidation).
It look like a colar of carrier pigeon.

Agreed. Google "Carrier pigeon message tube". In images there are items that look very similar. Could be WW2 relic, particularly as from Kent beach.

Eric.

[golfnut]

Could it be a military rocket for starting fires on sailing ships?

If the unit was upside down and the ring was crimped to a stick - there may have been a wick in the filling - it max not be wax


It could be an early flare for signalling rescue?

S

[daverave]

how can i find out exactly what the item is ???????

[sinclairuser]

Hi pigeon message tube almost certainly, whats up for debate is which war, i favour the 1st as pigeons were unreliable in the second(ordinary homing pigeons).
the passenger pigeons of the 1st may actually have been extinct by the second but im unsure about that, what i am sure of is that it looks more edwardian than george the sixth.