Horse Hitching Weight? Military Connection?

I think I have this piece narrowed down to being a Horse Hitching Weight. It is marked Stand - S.N.Y. - 14. It weighs 14 pounds. It seems a bit fancier than most of the other hitching weights i've seen, so I wonder if there is a military connection with the SNY abbreviation.

Thanks for looking.

 

What makes it not just a one stone weight?

 

I can't remember -- is a stone 12 lbs?

 

WOW, what a cool find It is a bit fancier than most buggy tether weights I have seen. In one of my old horsie books I saw a weight with a rope on a pully so that a stalled horse could lie down and not get caught up in the rope then when it stood up the weight would keep the rope taut.

 

I can't remember -- is a stone 12 lbs?

A stone is 14 pounds, which is why I think it is simply a run of the mill scale weight, although no doubt it could be used for all manner of other purposes.
A rolled newspaper is still just a newspaper even if used as a fly swatter.

This is just a weight. Made for weighing stuff. What it might have become later is just speculation.

 

Thanks for the replies so far everyone. I've been looking at general scale weights, and there are somewhat similar designs for English scales, but the ones i've seen so far are brass and no where near this size (it measures 7 inches tall). Also, why the writing on both sides. Why bother putting that on each individual weight of a set. Figuring out what Stand and SNY mean would probably narrow things down...

It came out of an old farm in Ohio.

If anything, it makes a nice door stop. I'll continue looking around with the thought of it as a scale weight later today and see what I find.

 

Well, I found a few like this so far: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-victorian-14lb-cast-iron-bell-463057139 . Square, but similar. None with company markings though. Pretty nice sale price on that one though. (238.22).

 

Hi,
Looks like an old windmill weight. The pricer ones are shaped like animals. WAG
greg

 

Stand may be 'standard' abbreviated.

 

S.N.Y. appears on many older items once owned by the State of New York. My company has a 650-lb. bronze cannon made in 1796 with "S.N.Y." engraved on top, since it was once owned by the State of New York. The weight could have been used by N.Y. state "weights and measures" inspectors, but most weight standards I've seen were made of brass. Beyond that, I dunno.

 

I thought about windmill weights for a bit, but it seemed they were much heavier typically.

The State of New York thing is about the only thing i've seen that makes sense so far for the abbreviation.

Anyway, thanks for the guesses/information.