A 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 affect the balance and weight distribution of the ball. On this example, brass and copper nails were used to create a pattern, which would have distinguished one players balls from the others. As I understand it, someone very knowledgable could look at this and determine the region in France where it was made, perhaps the specific maker, but that person is not me!
Just shy of 4" d. Very good antique condition.
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