small leather case with horses... what was it used for?

I'll lay odds that little case is Spanish.

 

Good bet Bear!

Is there a bit of a "waviness" on the front of the leather,

After further perusing, it looks like the "swirl" on the leather could be mass stamped out, but the horses look hand tooled. The way the leather looks (not completely smooth and stretched across the front?) on the front also makes me think just the horse heads were hand done after the fact.

 

The reins, & the hardware....I just don't see that as being hand punched....I just don't.

plus..there is a separation crack in the leather along the horses nose...that traditionally shows up on stamped out items...

 

Thanks Komo!

 

at finst i wondered if this was gutta percha

 

The wooden part totally looks like the interior of an old gutta percha box.

 

It is unique though....I'll give it that !!

 

Komo - I haven't got the best eyesight and still cannot see a cut mark around the horse's head but the "wrinkle" in the leather made me think the scroll was manufacturer-stamped and the horse heads were hand done.

 

I see what looks like a separation along the lead horse'ys nose ....

& I just don't know of a hand held tool that could make the reins that smooth and crisp...
Also the way the ...'leather' molds around the side of the case ....where the design is.....is not consistent with the rest of the cover......

If I had it in my hand...I'd be 100 %.......but ahhh......

 

Komo, I could have done those reins with the right leather tools when I was young and worked with leather, so that's not a sure thing. Do you see the "wrinkle" in the leather I mentioned? I have no other explanation for that other than factory scroll on lower edge and hand tooled horses' heads. Do you think a factory job from wayyy back then would have left that wrinkle in the front? I don't think so.

I noticed the way the leather "molds" around the sides and thought it was hand done. The original poster has not come back to discuss these points, but I could go either way with it at this point. If it turns out there is a cut mark by the horse's nose, then that part would be factory made along with the Art Nouveau scroll part too. btw: I just looked again and actually, there looks to be a cut along the top of the scroll. I cannot discern if along the nose or if the dark line along the farthest horse's neck is a cut. I just think the horses part is hand done (if any) and the box used may have once been a gutta percha box.

Let's see if the OP returns. Love you Komo and thanks! *hearts*

 

OK Anti....I'll say Uncle ......until we get some more information as to whether what we're seeing.......is what we're seeing !!!

PS....If you could have done those reins by hand......you're a better girl than I am !!!.......

 

Goodness YES let's hope so!

 

Thank you for your comments, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and I marvel at your expertise.

It does look like a gutta percha box, but doesn't the size make that unlikely? It doesn't seem to conform to any of the "usual" sizes.

Here are a couple of more photos, hopefully they will show some details that might help understanding the leatherwork. I'm afraid I am completely clueless about "cuts" and "molds" and "wrinkles". I hate to admit I'm fully clueless about all of those points & I'm not sure what I should be looking at! Hopefully the pictures will speak for me

 

Now the scroll part looks glued on, applied to the front.

Thank you so much for the extra photographs! So kind of you..

 

I'm not too sure about it being a case for photographs. Usually the inside would be squared off at the corners to hold the image, a mat, a preserver, and cover glass. There are some completely round ones occasionally, too... but I don't recall any with straight sides and rounded corners. Most cases were for just one photo and the other half was filled with a silk or velvet covered pad. There were cases with room for two photos, but as SusanFYR pointed out, this case is not a standard size for photos of that time. In addition, most of the cases had a little padded strip around the edge to sort of snug up to the packet of mat, preserver, cover glass, and photo. Here is a tintype that was in just half a case, missing its front cover, with the pieces disassembled.



In addition, I can't tell for sure but it doesn't appear to me that the case posted by the OP would be deep enough to hold the entire assembled packet with all of the pieces above.

UPDATE: looking again at the original post I do see that it might have the padded strip around the inside. I'm still not sure about it being a photo case, though. If so, the design seems unusual. I'll see if I can find anything.