✅ SOLVED Odd Metal Holder with Clay Marble In It?

[diggummup]

Just wondering what this odd looking metal thing is I picked out of a trash pile at a sale. It has a clay marble in it that won't come out. Don't know why it would be original to it. Looks like a hangar of some type. It is about 7 inches long. Anybody? Thanks.

 

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[ticndig]

turn it over , screw to the wall and you have what I guess to be a note holder

 

[Lenrac2]

Or a towel holder. I have a wooden one just like it.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Looks to be a kitchen hanger from the 1920s, so as ticn & Len suggested, you could've hung just about anything from it. No idea why the marble is in there though, as it doesn't appear to serve any real purpose?

 

[Lenrac2]

Looks to be a kitchen hanger from the 1920s, so as ticn & Len suggested, you could've hung just about anything from it. No idea why the marble is in there though, as it doesn't appear to serve any real purpose?

Looks to be a kitchen hanger from the 1920s, so as ticn & Len suggested, you could've hung just about anything from it. No idea why the marble is in there though, as it doesn't appear to serve any real purpose?

The marble is what holds the item firmly..As tnd said, you turn it over. When you push whatever you are holding up in it, the marble comes down behind it to hold it. I didn't know they had them back that far. Mine is newer with a glass marble.

 

[creskol]

By design, it looks like it was meant to hold a towel ring.

 

[Red-Coat]

It is indeed a towel holder, and shown upside down in the posted images. Patented by Claus E. Erickson in 1916:



It won’t necessarily be as old as that and we would really need to see a patent date or renewal date on the item to say more about when it might have been made.

The C. E. Erickson Company was a plumbing and heating supplier (including accessories like this), with a six-storey manufacturing facility in Des Moines, Iowa known as the “Crane Building”, constructed in 1916.

If you Google “magic marble towel holder” you’ll see lots of modern holders using the same ‘captive ball’ principle to hold the towel in place, but generally made from wood with a glass marble as Lenrac says. Some sellers say it’s based on an Amish design to avoid using a hook but I’m doubtful about that. The Amish had no objection to hooks as far as I know.

 

[diggummup]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Special thanks to Red-Coat for the patent information. I posted it here because I seem to remember someone years ago on here posting something similar. I remembered the marble mainly. Anyways, thanks again and enjoy your 4th of July.