Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum . . . A Portal to the Past

What's it?  It's a bread slicing guide with crumb catcher.  Did you get it right? A loaf of bread would be placed on the board and the two sides brought up and connected by the springs.  A knife could then follow the cuts in the wood to get perfect slices of bread.  The slices run from very thin to an average thickness (unlike today's Texas slice)!  The base would catch the crumbs and made clean up a bit easier.  When the guide was not in use, the two sides would fold into the middle for flat storage.