Bought this at a flea market, guy said it was some kind of case for a pocket watch. Tried a size 18 movement in it, fits perfect. Some kind of shipping container or salesman's case? Any ideas, opinions, comments. There is a small hole, possibly for a winding stem.

Halves separated.

With movement.

It is a movement holder, I have had plenty, some like this are nice, some even are silver. I just sold a huge collection, the guy had dome great holders like this, if you cannot complete the watch and the movement is a good one, why not give it a good home to display it.

Thanks Andy,
That movement is just one I had in the parts box, used it for a test fit.
Gary

Gary it looks like silver one have you test it.

Andy,
I've been giving this some more thought, could movement holders like this have been used by jewelers to display Uncased movements, so that they could be shown to prospective buyers, without the fear of damage by the buyers handling, possibly losing hands or breaking a balance.
Gary

When a pocket watch was sold at a jeweler, the general procedure was the customer picked out their movement and then picked a case and the jeweler put the movement in the case and the sale was made. Manufacturers shipped their movements in these containers to the jeweler. The fancy damaskeening we see had a great deal to do with marketing. It shouted 'pick me' to the potential customer.

Thanks Guys, appears to be silver, but not tested.

In the old days they seemed to have salesman samples of almost everything. Seems you could not just google it in 1880.

Gary you are correct. The customer selected the movement and then the case. The fancier the movement looked the more likely the sale. Just think what a shop full of "highly jeweled"Swiss fakes would have looked like.