Carriage part, but what part?

[NOLA_Ken]

I know that John Stephenson was a carriage builder in New York, and that the company also made streetcars..... I dug this peice in City Park a while ago, and decided I'd like to know what if any function it served. Was it just a decorative badge? Did it have any other function? It's brass and measures 1.5 inches across, ant it stands on three "legs" a hair over half an inch. It's bent, and looks like it was taller than it was wide, but that could be from stretching when it bent.

 

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[HutSiteDigger]

Ken- I think these were attached to the seats of the streetcar, i am almost certain because I have rode in streetcars that had similar type on their seats! good luck

 

[nhbenz]

Oddly, it would appear it may have been bent by design, or else pried off in a duplicate manner; John Stephenson, New York ? Coachbuilder | wkdc.co.uk

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Well that one is pretty much identical except that it has what looks like a screw hole in the center, which leaves me wondering how mine would have attached..... The seat handle idea is interesting, I'd like to see a photo of one in use.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Pretty cool how these things have turned up on both sides of the Atlantic.