Click on image for a better view:

Incredible John Brown Souvenir! This is a small container that measures roughly 1.5" tall x 1.75" in circumference.
Two nails from a house that John Brown lived in while training his small band of men before the Harper's Ferry raid are mounted on the top.
It looks to be a nickel plated copper container with a center post, maybe to hold rings or something similar. Engraved on the side is:
"Nails from John Brown House
Springdale, Iowa"

Please see all photos below. Wear as shown in the photographs.

$285.00 plus shipping

"The Quakers of Iowa. Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa. p. 193. "A little over a year after his first visit to the Springdale neighborhood, Brown reappeared late in December, 1857—this time with some ten companions and for purposes which he seemed not anxious to have known. The men were lodged with a Quaker, William Maxon [or Maxson], about three miles northeast of the village of Springdale, with Brown agreeing to give in exchange for their keep such of his teams or wagons as might seem just and fair. Brown himself was taken into the home of John H. Painter, about a half-mile away; and all were welcomed with that unfeigned hospitality for which the Friends have always been known. Not many days passed by until suspicions were aroused concerning this group of men; for the word was spread that strange maneuvers, much like military drill, were daily being conducted on the lawn at the Maxon [or Maxson] home."
"The men brought by Brown to Springdale on this occasion were his own son, Owen Brown, Aaron D. Stevens, John Kagi, John E. Cook, Richard Realf, Charles W. Moffitt, Luke J. Parsons, Charles H. Tidd, William Leeman, and Richard Richardson, a colored man. See Lloyd’s John Brown Among the Pedee Quakers in Annals of Iowa, Vol. IV, p. 712."
Please see all photos below.