1 hour ago, pastrygirl said:what is it really, and if I try to sell it should it be $5 at a garage sale or $50 online?
It is a vintage pharmacist's cork press, from the day when drugs and tinctures were locally bottled in glass and then stoppered with real cork. The operator rolls a slightly oversized cork between the wheel and anvil, working it down to a size that will fit his/her bottles.
How do I know this? Well, these old machines also work quite well at working modern large-format wine corks down to the point you can get them in a wine bottle. The alternative is a $1500 unitasker.
Definitely closer to $50 resale than $5. People collect these things.
