Can anyone help us identify this silver object?

[Consolación Diver]

Hi everyone,

We have a small silver object which was discovered on the Consolacion in Ecuador, and we need some help identifying it. It has threads on the bottom so something was screwed into it. The two pieces fit together, the one on the right sits on top of the larger object and acts as a lid or top. It was found with a silver cup, and neither one has any markings on it.

Our best guess is that a wooden staff was screwed into it, and it is some type of religious item used by a priest.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Any help identifying this piece would be greatly appreciated!

 

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[Old Dog]

Is the lid vented around the sides?

You think this is a church related piece,

It could be an inscence burner even without vent holes.
Placed open on a stationary post and closed to stop a burn.

I have seen some of the old burners and the threads on the bottom this could be ....

My best guess
Old Dog

 

[Zephyr]

Vote #2 for it being a thurible (incense burner). Hard to judge it's size though. Was any chain found near it? (You might want to find an expert on early religious artifacts to help you in it's identification.)

 

[Tricia]

Dimensions?

 

[Darren in NC]

Our best guess is that a wooden staff was screwed into it...

A cane top/handle perhaps - with the hidden compartment? Popular today,but I don't know about back then.

 

[Peg Leg]

The workmanship is not what one would see associated with a church so I think you can forget that.
Peg Leg

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I think its part of a whale oil lamp or candle base. It doesnt look like that bottom was suppose to come off and perhaps was originally filled with sand for weight. Flip it over. Screw side up.

 

[Consolación Diver]

Thanks alot for the input! I love this site.

It is not vented on the top,and no chain has been found. It measures 4 1/2 inches tall and 2 1/2 inches across.

The only other religious items found on the wreck are several bronze medallions, and a chest of bronze star-shaped ornaments which would have been mounted on the primary doors of a new church.

I agree with Peg-Leg that it is not ornate, and therfore probably wasent for a church, but it is corroded and who knows if some of it isnt missing from its immersion in the sea.

I like Old Dog's theory that it was mounted on a base somewhere in the ship for inscense.

Thanks alot for the help!

 

[Tricia]

What do you call those things that go between a chair's legs and the floor? They help the chair slide. Protect the floor from being scratched.

On dining room furniture.

The dimensions are wrong for that but what do you call those things? Sliders?

 

[Old Dog]

Hate to put a squelch on that Tricia,
But ship board furniture was and for the most part still is bolted to the deck to prevent injury on rough seas.
A ship pitching with the wave action will throw the funiture around if it isn't fastened down.

OD

 

[BuckleBoy]

I also vote for the cane-topper idea. It is the right size.

Buckleboy

 

[Tricia]

So what did I miss?

Why are we talking about nailing down furniture?

Let me go back and see what I missed.

Yes the item was found on the ship but there could have been cargo.

Do the dimensions of the silver object make it really too big to be a chair slider? Probably, but sliders slide chairs. I think that's what they're called.

LOL