Iron, Brass and Copper Nailed Late 19th Century Petanque Ball handy What a charming and curious

What a charming and curious thing

especially prominent antlers

and would be great framed with a backdrop of most any color--or patterned wallpaper

of things like honestly weathered old wood grows in inverse proportion

4 1/8" x 2 1/2" x 15/16"

Iron, Brass and Copper Nailed Late 19th Century Petanque Ball handy What a charming and curiousA beauty. I've found a few of these over the years but it has been a while. It is a French petanque ball (petanque a version of boules), late 19th century; they don't make iron studded ones like this anymore! From what I have learned about examples like this, the interior of the ball is likely olive wood, which was hand shaped and sanded, and then the square iron nails were hammered in one by one, with each nail hole precisely placed so as not to