Featured Small gold (antique?) item on chain --what is this?

u can take away my vote now....

 

Darn. Someone else got there first. Definitely a watch winder. They often became separated from the watch. They sometimes turn up on watch pins or watch chains, used as fobs. The watch itself is long gone. That's a nice piece of bloodstone, btw.

 

I would never have guessed! Very cool piece Lucille

 

D'oh! Now that af has said that, of course. Makes perfect sense.

 

Watch keys and seal fobs often feature on charm bracelets from the mid 20th C when they did get very chunky. Possibly many keys and fobs have been preserved by just this use.

Gold watch keys are never marked, to my knowledge, partly because of the small size but mainly because they incorporated a steel winding square in the end (gold would be too soft) and being of mixed metals they were not technically hallmarkable as gold..

Nowadays anything unusual in a watch key is sought after by watch people although the type of key illustrated is a relatively common type of the fancier kind. If they are usable it is a plus but even unusable ones are in demand.
With watch keys, look out for tipsy keys, they have an internal rachet that only allows them to wind one way, preventing people from trying to wind the watch the wrong way which could easily break the fusee chain.

 

Hi,
Here are some photos of my great grams 14Kt gold pencil with amethyst top. Do not know when pencil got broken but as a kid I saved the pieces.
greg

 

This is a 10k gold filled retracting toothpick I had with a carnelian set in the top

 

Interesting! Several very similar looking items from that era. Gorgeous!

AF, thank you for the detailed responses. Taking a better look the steel winding square is still in place, but the tip is a bit worn and broken. I will be sure to take some additional photos of that end when listing.

 

My last comment is that that type of key is in my experience usually associated with small gold fob watches for ladies, typically with similar engraving on the case. Obviously the keys died out with key wind watches in the late 19th C.

 

SO, Af blows us all out of the water!!!!!!!!! Except for a couple!! The pencil was my first (and only!) thought!!! (Mob mentality!!!)

 

I am very old and have seen a lot of stuff. No normal person should be expected to have pondered so much irrelevant junk.

 

I'm not as old and have seen more junk than one sane person ought. Which explains me.... Those keys pop up occasionally.