A Find

While at the cemetery today, looking over the amazing work that the Eagle Scout team led by Chris has done on the Methodist part of the cemetery, I came across this little ceramic object sitting among the dirt and stones that have been excavated from the base of the Parthenia Sarles's broken gravestone. These photos show where it was located:




And these photos show how it looked after I cleaned it off at home. Presumably the excavation of the gravestone base was done by the team, and that this object was packed into the ground around the base along with the stones (which include several small pieces of other gravestones). Was the object part of the original fill used to erect Parthenia's stone in 1858? (This is assuming that Parthenia's stone was erected in the year of her death. Sometimes stones weren't put up for years after.)

And, of course, what is it? I'm guessing that it is the base of a candlestick. The photo below shows the underside, which is clearly worn where the base came in contact with another surface. You can also see the number "179." and a small X. I'm sure that a ceramics expert would be able to tell when and where this object was made.