Originally Posted by Dandish
My guess would be some sort of fastener to use when you are braiding or tying or doing lacework of some sort. The metal hook goes around something to hold it in place and the pin/ball things hold the beginnings of your work/strings/threads/cords and you work out from there.
Just a guess. Really have no idea.
Just a thought to add to this comment, Macreme ? maybe.
Sounds good and it looks as though I could use it for tath when I did macrame way back when, Hook on anything and the cords could hang down so you could start your knots. Maybe fisheren used it to do the knots for lobster pots, although I never seen a fishermen use this for his knots :-)