Antique letter scales

I've been photographing some artefacts for the book I'm writing about my brother.  He was always fond of old things, and bought this set of letter scales for my parents to use, even though by that time, metric weights had been adopted.  This meant that he needed to buy them a set of gram weights as well, which he did the following year.  I don't think they ever used the scales, although they made an attractive ornament; now they are in my house.