Some Help Please

[Hill Billy]

I found this brass piece the other day and wonder what it went to?
It has been engraved and I can't seem to make it out.
I can read " wisdom is practical"
So what is it and what does it say?
Thanks for your help

 

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[johnnyi]

Perhaps it says "As the object of all study, and the end of all wisdom, is practical utility"


Preface
The Household Cyclopedia 1881

http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/preface.html

HH,
Donny

Donny, I believe you are correct. Great job, I would have never figured that one out.
Now what did this brass piece go to?
In the one photo of the back of the piece there appears to be 4 letters. They may help with identifying what the brass piece was used for.
Thanks again everyone for there help so far.

Buckles, I still think it might have been one of the outside halves to a folding medical lancet. It wouldn't be unusual for a phrase like this to appear on what may have been a gift to a youg doctor.

lancets of colonial times came in different styles, and unfortunately very few are pictured on the web. Some fold with a longer blade. This one may have had a shorter blade, with the handle making up the difference. Here is a scan showing he hump that covers the blaqde on a slightly diffeent style of lancet. http://images.google.com/imgres?img...prev=/images?q=medical+lancet&hl=en&sa=N&um=1

 

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[DCMatt]

Perhaps it says "As the object of all study, and the end of all wisdom, is practical utility"


Preface
The Household Cyclopedia 1881

http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/preface.html

HH,
Donny

Donny, I believe you are correct. Great job, I would have never figured that one out.
Now what did this brass piece go to?
In the one photo of the back of the piece there appears to be 4 letters. They may help with identifying what the brass piece was used for.
Thanks again everyone for there help so far.

Buckles, I still think it might have been one of the outside halves to a folding medical lancet. It wouldn't be unusual for a phrase like this to appear on what may have been a gift to a youg doctor.

lancets of colonial times came in different styles, and unfortunately very few are pictured on the web. Some fold with a longer blade. This one may have had a shorter blade, with the handle making up the difference. Here is a scan showing he hump that covers the blaqde on a slightly diffeent style of lancet. http://images.google.com/imgres?img...prev=/images?q=medical+lancet&hl=en&sa=N&um=1

I believe johnnyi is correct. This is half of a handle for a brass lancet or bloodletting fleam.

Here is a web page with lots of them - almost all of them engraved in some way.

http://www.alllancets.com/Brass2.html

Great ID.

DCMatt

 

[72cheyenne]

Looks right on! Amazing ID.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Fantastic find and ID.

 

[5woodluther]

I see the resemblance, but the lancets always have the protruding 1/2 moon or other shaped portion on the end opposite the pivot point. Not dissagreeing, just noting a discrepency.

 

[johnnyi]

I see the resemblance, but the lancets always have the protruding 1/2 moon or other shaped portion on the end opposite the pivot point. Not dissagreeing, just noting a discrepency.

Swoodluther, as I said in my post, if this was part of a lancet, then the arm to the blade on this one would be shorter, hinging on the large screw and terminating at the actual blade itself (the hump). For all practical purposes the small upward part of the blade is the "working end" and in theory anyway, the longer handle would provide the same grip as a shorter version with a longer strraight part of the blade would. Like I said, we have so very few images to go by, particularly concerning such very early tools (and this script looks colonial) that this is only a guess.