posted 05-23-2002 09:53 PM            

Who says Scott and June have all the fun? Here is an interesting little thingy that I bought recently. Scott and June say they know what it is, but I don't, so let's kick it around.

As you can see, it is an oblong sort of ring with joints in the middle that allow it to fold in half. On one side is a plaque attached with a spring hinge that makes it function as a clip. There are no marks.

The ring itself appears to be made of nickel silver, or perhaps a very low grade silver alloy. The plaque looks like it might be gold-filled. The plaque is decorated with honest-to-goodness champleve enamel.

Can anyone tell me what this is? It was sold to me as a folding napkin ring, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. For bonus points, can anyone identify the arms on the plaque?

posted 05-29-2002 08:32 AM              

I don't know what else it could be. I does look like a folding napkin ring but you say it is not a folding napkin ring. Then what is it? BTW, why would a napkin ring need to fold? I suppose it could be some sort of fancy paper clip but I am not sure how that would work. So what is it?

posted 06-01-2002 04:34 PM            

Anyway, we wanted to take pictures of how we've been told this item is used, but we'll just have to describe it. We have been told it is indeed a folding napkin ring. Why a folding napkin ring, you might ask? Again, we have been told that a folding napkin ring would take up less room in the picnic basket. This makes a certain amount of sense. Remember, in olden days people used to carry their own flatware too because it just wasn't always provided by the eating establishments.