Odd Simons Bros. Cigar Piece

[admin]

Hello All,
As you can see, it is in the form of a cigar, one end already neatly clipped. It is pierced with two oval holes, one smaller than the other. One could use these for resting burning cigars perpendicularly across the piece if they were well balanced, but that just doesn't seem practical. Anyone have other ideas?

The bottom is stamped for Simons Bros., Sterling, #2178 and Patent Pending. It is 4 1/2 inches long. Hope someone can figure it out.
Thanks, Tom

ps. no holes in the ends, so not a whistle or flute.


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[wev]

I wonder if it's not part of a cane handle -- Simons made many novelty designs, mostly designed by H. 0. Schmidt.
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[admin]

wev,
Doesn't seem to be a part of something else, although the tobacco leaf texture continues all around, the bottom is flat and it appears to have originally been made that way. There are no signs of any mount removals, the texture has no bald spots nor any sign of fire scale from torch work. Could be wrong, but believe it is complete unto itself.

First I've heard of Schmidt, sounds interesting. If I had some facility with the patent database, I'd go looking for his toys. Can you tell us more about him and what he designed?
Thanks, Tom
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[wev]

Don't know anything of him; type in his name and cane in google patent and you should get about 20 designs.
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[admin]

Henry O. Schmidt of New York, all cane or umbrella handles, the designs assigned to Simons, Brothers & Co.
A search for Simons Brothers yielded the HOS cane handles, plus a couple of designs for mirror & brush backs.
No luck on finding my item with various "cigar" searches.

Very happy to see that Google has co-opted the US Patent database, much easier to use than the patent office site. Thanks, wev, for cluing me in. If any of you want to give it a whirl -> http://books.google.com/patents
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[wev]

Yes , very handy, but be forewarned -- Google's scans are generally poor quality and their OCR program looks like something that comes bundled with a low end scanner.
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[2209patrick]

Checked a few of my tobacco related books, but no luck.
My best guess is a tamper for a tobacco pipe.
No clue as to what the two holes are for.

Pat.
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[Traden]

Hi Pat just a guess i was flicking through some silver on eBay and came across a 2 piece cigar piercer just thought your item could be a stand/holder for somthing the same or simular would make a nice desk top cigar acsessories stand
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[salmoned]

Have you tried putting a string through the holes and whirling it around for sound effects? ;)
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