It Was a Very Good Year!

...1868, that is!  It was a Leap Year, just like 2012.  Why, just look at some of the historic events:

• May 30 - Memorial Day was observed in the US for the first time
• July 25 - Wyoming became a US territory
• August 4 - Ira H Stockwell patented the second American metal tatting shuttle

Both sides are the same - a spray of flowers from the center to the end, with the patent date around the center.  It's nickel silver, which is another name for German Silver.  This is another of my eBay finds - purchased as one of a group of four shuttles (the others were early plastics).  I'm very pleased to add it to my growing collection of old shuttles!