Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s long well stuffed with either straw

well stuffed with either straw or perhaps more shredded cornhusk

hard-cover portfolio

The character of the wood and paint on these is just a different thing

and caramel brown

As is: 9 1/4" x 6 3/4"

Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s long well stuffed with either strawA beauty. I've found one or two of these over the years but it has been quite a while. It is a French petanque ball (petanque a version of boules), and is an early one, c. 1880s; 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