Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s long and think they'd be pretty

and think they'd be pretty cool hung in a hardware store one again

well stuffed with either straw or perhaps more shredded cornhusk

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

though perhaps it acknowledges the sinfulness of E

4 1/4" across at lip of base

Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s long and think they'd be prettyA 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