PERHAPS because last week’s Craven Curiosity seemed to be a little too obvious, there were no accurate ideas as to the actual function of the items.

Several readers thought they were children’s ‘artificial fruit’ toys in wax, while one person thought the object was the lid of a toy box.

Anne Read, honorary curator of the Museum of North Craven Life at The Folly in Settle explains: “These beautifully made artificial fruits are in fact indoor fireworks, made in the 1930s by Standard Fireworks of Huddersfield and sold by Lambert’s, the well-known Settle stationers and printers.

“Each fruit would be mounted in turn on the cardboard stand included in the box and the fuse on top lit with a taper.

“They were designed to be used on the table during children’s parties and the picture on the box lid shows a group of happy children wearing paper hats, sitting round a tea table groaning with jelly and cake and watching entranced as the ‘apple’ produces a shower of coloured stars.”

And making a return to the subject of the mystery ‘spindle’ object in the Herald edition of October 18 , Anne adds: “We’ve now successfully identified the mystery object.

“ One of our two theories was correct and it is indeed a ‘clicker’ or ‘clicket’, used to gain the attention of children in the classroom, typically in the former small ‘dames’ schools which existed before the introduction of compulsory education in 1880.”

This week’s Craven Curiosity, pictured top, is another with a very specific function indeed!

Send your suggestions to: news@craven herald.co.uk, as usual by 8am on Monday please.