Antique Hand-forged Iron Quilting Clamp with Big Heart (One of Two More Just Found) woven pottery which the anchor leaning against

which the anchor leaning against the cross at center would suggest

perhaps both having come out of the same estate somewhere

with solutions the the rebuses on the undersides

And one with a whole lot of layers of information and history embedded in it

Antique Hand-forged Iron Quilting Clamp with Big Heart (One of Two More Just Found) woven pottery which the anchor leaning againstThe is a 19th century hand forged iron quilting clamp, with one of this sort often referred to as a "heart clamp" for the heart shaped finial on the screw. It would have been used for clamping the fabric layers of a quilt (top, batting, backing) to the rails of a frame while working it (sparing the quiltmaking from laborious pinning, etc.) Once a month I go up to midcoast Maine for a show, and once a month, for a few months now, I bring home an old