🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Found next to an old beach in southern illinois. The man looks like hes golfing maybe?

[Amanda0383]

 

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[pepperj]

Looks like a guy water skiing.

 

[invent4hir]

pepperj, I see what you mean. With the hook my first thought was part of a clasp or sash. Is there some letters on the reverse side near the center? Looks like a "K"

 

[Red-Coat]

I see an anchor on the reverse:

Presumably a trademark for the maker.


It does look like a water-skier on the front. I wasn't expecting 'water-skiing buckles' to be a thing but a Google search turned up a number of them, many for a company called 'O'Brien' who have made water skis since 1964. No matches though, and your item looks older. The O'Brien buckles seem to be made by Baron & Baron but they didn't use an anchor trademark.
It's not clear what the buckles were for. Some listings refer to them as 'promotional'. From the size of yours, might it be a clasp for binding the skis, or a fastener for a life-jacket? Water-skiing was apparently first 'invented' in 1922., with the first patent for water-skis being granted in 1925, but not popularised until at least the 1940s.