Was this a letter opener?

[dcas55]

This is silver marked (800) with a coin attached at the top, on the bottom there is an opening with something broken off. I appears to have been glass or plastic of some sort. I'm wondering if it was a letter opener. It measure 2.7cm wide, 7.5cm tall, 4mm thick. Any ideas on what this may have been?
Thanks
dcas55
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23149919@ ... 4345107515

[oel]

Hi welcome to the forum. I believe it to be an Italian silver page turner handle.
Embedded images get a far greater response than just posting links.


Oel.

[AG2012]

Hi,
Something is definitively missing here. It could have been letter opener. The black substance looks like resin of some kind used to fix the blade of whatever not made of silver but horn, ivory etc.
If you want to repair it, there are cheap horn openers easily fitted here (horn can be filed and adjusted).
Regards

[JLDoggett]

While it could have been the end-cap to several things, a letter-opener sounds like a good use for it. Any competent jeweler should be able to fit a new blade to it.

[dcas55]

Thank you for your insights, and thank you for embedding the images, I couldn't figure out how to do that.
I appreciate the advice you've given, I need to think about what I want to do with this piece, just keep it as it is as an historical item or make it something functional.

dcas55

[Aguest]

::: There seem to have been a few items all lumped into the category of "letter opener" ::: One is a "paper knife," and the other is a "page turner," and these were made from different animal horns, tree woods, tree resins, and minerals ..:::.. Often they were used to turn pages of holy religious books of various denominations, and were especially useful in navigating the pages of over-sized books, but they seem to have gone out of fashion after the Victorian era, or maybe paper just changed into a lightweight and smaller-sized material and these items were not really necessary anymore :::

Only the letter opener remains.....but for how long?