What is this?
Usually I go to the brocante (flea market) alone. But last weekend French husband decided to go with me. I was as happy as a lark, what a rare treat. I knew he was tagging along to make me happy, kind of like a pre-Christmas gift… You know doing things you don’t like, but doing it because the person you love enjoys doing it sort of gift. Basically he hates the brocante! (Okay hate is a slight exaggeration but not far off from the truth.)
As we were walking along hand in hand whenever I saw something unusual I would ask him to guess what it was. Often he got it right…this is his culture you know. But since I love to win I was determine to find something he didn’t know. It was tough going. I figured if I could stump him then I might be able to stump you too!
This was one of the objects he didn’t know.
Do you know what these are and what they are used for? They are not "two by fours," though more along the size of "one by ones," does that exist?
Anyway a bag of Papillotes for the first person who guesses correctly, and another for the most original answer. You can guess more then once, I like to bend rules.
Guessing game ends tomorrow.
Update: 26 comments so far..very very interesting, clever, witty, and selecting an original is going to be tough. Though so far the correct answer is far far away… Or should I say cold?
Update: 65 comments warm, very warm…the answer is so close…
Final update: Wow! What amazing responses! Measuring sticks, candle holders, window frames, seed planter…talk about incredible imagination! I think I should do only guessing games on my blog, you are the best group ever.
Guessing Games results will be posted Sunday. Your guesses are fantastic! I think I should buy hundreds of these "wooden sticks" and create some of your guesses with them.
Comments are closed as the contest’s time is up!
Comments
114 responses to “Guessing Game…What is this?”
Looks like a musical instrument for people who can’t play – so other people can’t hear it. Hey it’s early morning here and my brain hasn’t engaged as yet.
TOUGH ! VERY tough !
This picture – and object – will follow me all day and will keep my brain busy !!!
But I’ll be back !!!
Training stilts? You move the peg up a little higher each time…No? I’m stumped!
tough!!
ofcourse local objects definitely from the provence, unknown to fh since he comes from the north.
hmmm, weathered wooden stalks, inside regular round cavities, size unclear..
thinking of fire places…season objects…?
perhaps placing candles inside…?
NO! changing direction, used for building or construction purposes?
fencing, railings, terraces…
am i close corey??
In Norwegian we have the word “lekegrind”, which I think can be translated to playpen.
When I was 12 I got my youngest brother, and to keep him away from his siblings treasures when he started to explore our house, my mother placed him in a wooden lekegrind. When our boys were born I inherited it and our boys had their naps in the lekegrind, and I stored their toys there. They didn’t like to play in this little prison though 🙂
The lekegrind was made of wodden pickets held together by four pieces of wood in the bottom, four on top, very much like the wood we see in your photos.
So my guess is:
left overs from a carpenter who was planning to have alot of kids, but who was to busy carpenting to even get himself a wife.
Corey,
Decorative rails; like porch rails?
rel
i would use the light wooden sticks, as an long candle holders on a garden.
delila
My natural response was alter candle holders from an old church.
Love to you.
A walking stick perhaps used like a cane………..
Just a wild guess.
I love you and glad your husband went with you …….How divine you are.
I love you
Jeanne
Good morning,
I think these are the top and bottom rail used for a poultry cage, dowels were inserted vertically into the holes to form the sides of cage.This is a WILD guess. By the way there is 1x lumber. This is my first guessing game and I’m not smarter than a fifth grader.
Hi Corey,
I think that these are the framework for a laundry clothes drying rack. The dowels are missing that form the frame. Please send prize money in cash to my usual Swiss account.
Rob
Hello!
I think it has something to do with counting or measuring. They are equally spaced apart. Ships would use knots tied in ropes, maybe this is for someone on land…
However, I do like the dowel theory… for the cages…
Hey Corey, I’m coming your way this holiday season! Visiting the in-laws further north. (Le Paulmet – 1 hour north of Limoges) Any last minute American requests? I can send them when I get there!
Happy Holidays!
This is a “palette”….:)
Or they are to put somewhere to hold horses.
( I asked my french husband and he said: Je n’ai pas la moindre idée…)
First, I totally get your story about you and French Husband going to the market. i too usually go alone, but sometimes Chris will surprise me and come too. He doesn’t *hate* the flea maket, but I can’t miss a trick and often spend hours there, where he would be ready to leave after an hour. Needless to say, though it is a nice surprise sometimes, but I pay a price 😉
Now for a guess…
I think it is missing dowels and was used as a ladder to get upstairs in a house or in a barn…haven’t you seen them on the French version of *Little House on the Prarie*????
un appareil à calibrer les haricots blancs
ou un moule à Smarties
🙂
_______________________________
Pretty darn good answer…especially because I love smarties!
or maybe… racks to hold spools of wool? I can see the indention, and then the worn circle. Winding on or off while spinning or weaving? Wow, my mind is actually warming up a bit.
I hope you get a chance to do your elf duties while you are keeping us occupied.
Jeni
In my line of work they would be labeled thing-a-ma-jigs, which quite simply means if you buy it, it can be anything you want it to be!(I work as an appraiser for an auction business)
But by the naked eye I would say a frame for a rack or ladder form once separated by doweling(like a hanging pot rack from a large kitchen).Their stark beauty allows them to stand alone as pieces of primitive art.
Susan
My husband thinks since you found these in France they must be holders for cufflinks for their french cuffs.
My guess is, since they are really old and you’re in France and I always think of duelling for some reason that these are markers for men that participated in duels. Either they placed a notch in the wood for each “win” or they placed a jewel in each notch for each “win” in which case these are on the market because these guys were losers.
Maybe I’ll win most original!
Once again : Je donne ma langue au chat .
I hate this game
I don´t have a husband. Not even a husband who doesn´t like going brocante. However, I have a father who – lucky me – LOVES fleamarkets. He really has a talented “eye” for hunting treassures so it´s alway a pleassure to join him.
But let´s be serious now – and have a guess. It must be some sort of frame for something that has to be firmly fixed. A canvas maybe?
je sais! Je sais!:
un prototype d’échelle centrale d’étagère Ikea..
1- An old rustic version of the calculator or “abacus”.
2- a sort of credit stick- on which were registered or “carved out” the amount of money owed by each customer…
I have seen something similar in Chinese windows, so as the two countries are very close it could be for the same purpose: it is a window shutter holder.
It is part of an old wine rack.
Bonnie
Charlotte, NC
Wow…I need to think about this for a few minutes…and finish my first cup of coffee! But I know it would look great down the center of my dinner table filled with votive candles!
My American Husband’s American Guess: 🙂 The indentions were used to hold eggs for inspection…which was permanently affixed to the chicken coop behind each nest to test for fertilization.
(whew…how does he think like this so early in the morning?)
Were they used as measuring sticks for carpenters?
Were they used as measuring sticks for carpenters?
Were they used to brace sticks of wood while they were being carved as decorative railing posts?
Were they used as part of a weaving loom?
COLD!!!!!!!!
They must be some kind of skis.
yes, now I know. The old carpenter has come to term with that there will be no wife, no kids in his life. He wants to do SOMETHING though, may be “telemark-ski” the alps behind his house.
There he meets Heidi and Peter, and he makes skis for them as well…….
(…….can you see that I would LOVE some French chocolate for Christmas,lol)
Let’s see…the holes are round…so maybe a mold for making the “macarons” that Paris Breakfasts loves so much!
Hmm, to my eye, they look like the sticks that cellists use to adjust the angle of their instrument — they lay the stick on the floor and then insert the pin on the end of the cello into the indentation. Well, that’s my guess anyway. Thank you for your lovely comments at my blog Corey!
I’m never good at this guessing but…. The back of old molding. Meaning, that which is used for decoration, along the top of rooms, etc.
Mari-Nanci
I think that they would be used in pairs, nailed opposite each other, and then used to suspend spools of ribbon between them with a dowel. OR, lying horizontal, they would make lovely candle holders, spanning the length of your table or mantle.
limbo sticks, no no no
my official guess in measuring stick. like a growing chart for little ones?
Trying hard to guess while having my bowl of cafe au lait this AM – but this is a hard one and I’m clueless really. Some really great guesses already. Mine is some type of measuring rod for planting straight rows of lavender – those fields are magnificent when in bloom.
Corey – you’ve done it again! Kept a huge secret. Jan/Feb. ‘VICTORIA’ arrived yesterday and there’s your awesome home – I’m blown away. I’m greedy – I wanted even more pages, more photos, more thoughtful words, everything is so lovely. Thank you so much for sharing such beauty with us.
Since I haven’t a clue, I’ll have to try for creativity! They are antique salt wells. Simply place down the center of the table, and everyone scoops from the well in front of them.
These are pool cue holders–hence the chalk residue
OR
They are clothesline holders–hence the bleach marks
OR
They are molds for ping-pong balls
We´re having a brain storm here in our home! My sister is guessing that old rich farmers used to have those thin pieces on the outside of their window sills to put out their cigars. And that’s how they created those circular marks!
Some kind of trellis?
Could if possibly be something you
use to make candles? Put the wick
through and dip?
One more thought – a plate rack?
Hmmmm!!!I am right I am no good a games…however, I will give it a go.
These would be set down flat with the little wells up…then filled with feed for baby chicks…or…No!!!that is all I can come up with.
1. Window frames or picture frames
2. something to prevent an ice dam from forming?
They look like something that would hold candles, the tall elegant white ones, lined up in neat rows hanging perhaps just a few feet down from an rustic stone ceiling?
It is a very interesting piece and a very interesting puzzle post!
I will be sure back to know what is it!
(came via Gardenrooms)
Joyeux Noel
How about antique ice cube trays?
Good Morning Corey,
Its freezing here, the themometer says 30 degrees burrrrr. I think your stick are like yard stick for measuring for sewing, or calibrating something. Maybe for a game to hold marbles. Hmmmm, I don’t know, You are just to tricky Pinkie Denise
Corey, you are obviously torturing many souls here! Ugh! They would make nice and very long candle holders for a table.
I can understand the joy you had in having your husband come with you on one of our favorite outings. How lovely!
OH, and yes, pleae do come for dinner for the raviolis!
Jeni
How about ice tongs? That’s something cold, right?
Merry Christmas Corey!!!!!
I think these are planting sticks. I remember reading about something like this. They would lay the stick down to make a nice even row and then plant a seed next to the intentation so that the seeds were lined up nice and even too. Thanks so much for the fun. Laurie
I received my Victoria magazine today and was so pleased to see an article about you and your home. How wonderful for you and for us, your fans/friends.
The sticks? Big slingshots for hitting all of the other guys at once. Those French are so clever.
Corey, you “Blissful” lady! I’ve just read about you in my latest magazine! It is like reading the diary of a dear friend! Much love to you!!!
My guess… I have absolutely no idea. And believe it or not, hubby’s grandmother I think had one of these hanging around in her collection of “old things” (she was a world traveler) and I asked once what it was and I’ve forgotten! lol Does it have something to do with cooking?
OK Corey,
Here goes, something for french bread or rolls. Maybe some kind of sugar mold.
Those are my guesses.
Rosemary
As my brain wakes up, I’m thinking along the lines of a dairy implement. Something used in the process of cheese or butter-making. (And I won’t ask hubby, as I think he knows what it is since granny had one and I don’t want to cheat.) =)
I came to your site from December Views. I am so happy to have found your lovely little spot and will return again and again.
My guess is this: The wood strips would be mounted in a cabinet with dowels running between them. Fancy, lacy, very French handkerchiefs would gently flutter from the dowels. The dainty hankies safely out of sunlight, without creases, waiting for an elegant lady to open the cabinet to pop her powdered face into and hopefully choose one to come out for the day.
I think I’m too late but perhaps they were used to secure wine bottles while they were being transported. The circular grooves would have fit over the tops of the bottles to keep them separate and steady while in the back of the truck?
I think it is something used for the growing of oysters in “Etang de Thau” in south of France. But I’m not sure !
Your blog is wonderful !!!
Amicalement
Isabelle
I would say they’re ladder sides, with the dowels missing. But whatever they are, they’ve definitely got that old brocante weathered french look!
I haven’t got a clue-looks like some sort of game to me. The last time I took my husband to a brocante with me I was wishing I had worn some skates just to keep up with him. He wasn’t lingering over anything to say the least.
Some sort of newell post for a gate or fence or railing?
They look like instruments used for measuring something…or for construction? Humm…how about the sides of a ladder waiting to be built? (love how you crossed out ‘hand-in-hand’) 🙂
They are so opposite. The one once painted white seemed perhaps the part that holds stair newels, but the rustic one? Nah. Could be the diagonals that hold the roost poles for chickens.
The polls were hung up, parallel to one another, horizontally, above an outside living space. There were longer dowels that were held in place in the notched out parts. They were used for drying herbs over a patio.
Side trim molding for Santa’s sleigh, the holes are where the Jingle Bell hang.
Hmmm…my guess(es)are: holds marbles or luscious red (sweet) cherries, all in a row!
First let me wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. Don’t have a clue, but they look like they are a mold for something! But my guess is they were laid flat to measure rain. I ordered the bag of french candy for everyone for Christmas eve.
Molds for candles, butter, cheese? I believe that there are two (1×1’s) per mold set. The molds are for something round, smashed together and tightly held together with wire or twine hence the broken through edges of the wood.
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family!
Okay Corey, my husband and I were looking and looking at this, I am stumped. But his guess is it is a rod you stick in a hallow flute to make the holes so one wouldn’t drill all the way through. Goodness, this one is tough. 🙂
Teresa
(((hugs)))
I believe these were used to attract butterflies to French gardens – the gardner would fill the little cavities with water so that the butterflies could drink their fill before going about the business of getting nectar from the flowers, fruits and veggies. Thereby pollinating the garden for a lovely season!! One cannot live by sugar alone, you know!! : )
As to what it really is, I’ve no idea, but will be most interested in learning. They do look like sugar molds, but I believe they were used in some sort of mechanical way due to the wearing on the outside of the cavities. As always, Corey, thanks much for the fun and brain exercise! ~ Laure
Must be a rack of sorts… dowels between, laid out flat not vertical, suspended from the roof… either herbs, or sheets of paper, or material, something from a specialty shoppe… then I think of riddling racks, but those would be holes, not dowels…
Milt said they look like octopus legs…
I really hope he doesn’t win…
Walking Sticks? Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Holy Moly!!!! I haven’t a clue. Maybe something to do with WINE racks??// I know..I’m pushing it! ha!
I’m thinking something to display candles in ?
Oh goodness Corey, I thought for sure ‘Romantic French Husband’ would know what these are! Known lovingly as “escalier à la lune” these ‘bougies de lune’ are filled with rose scented wax and cord each SOLSTICE eve. Then they are layed end to end outside where the air is fresh, and the moon clear, lit with a warm flame, and used to enchant (read WOO) one’s hearts desire…
Walking sticks or part of an old fence??
Corey, I think Ulla guessed it, Is she right?
I think you would pick something so romantic as this……just like you! Denise
Hummm, a stick notched to lay out seeds evenly in a planting row? I would have said a fire starter but there are no charcoal burns. So, I vote for the even layout of seeds.
My guess is that they are to hold small candles…..laid flat with candles in the grooves… 😀
Gosh Corey…who knows? I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s something for holding eggs – but to what purpose, I haven’t a clue!
OUCH! My brain hurts from this one Corey! This is so delicious, the stumper to beat all stumpers. I can’t even come up with a nonsense response to this one.
Looking forward to the answer.
Ah! These are molds used to make the small round ‘firecrackers’ that POP when the Papillottes are opened! The wax they are encased in is still evident on the wood within and around the little ‘wells’ they rested in to harden (chill) before being removed and then inserted in the Papillottes wrapper!
Molds for sealing wax for the tops of bottles? hmmmm… Line the bottles in a row, put the corks in, top with wax, set these thingys on top? This is a tough one (they always are)!
They lay these on top of fermenting Champagne bottles to help hod the corks in.Extra weight (another row of bottles) would be on top.
Cousin Chris
Um, you attach it to the wall and put your autographed base balls in the dents so they won’t roll off.
Miss Sandy
Well I don’t have a clue. But alot of guesses are that it is a mold but it looks to small to be a mold. There is someone who said it is used to keep the bottle corks on bottles. That sounds like a good guess. So I don’t know but you do have my wondering what it is! LOL!!
It’s wood. Part of a game?
i don’ know! i read all the comments and my first guesses are all stated! i even cheated and had my husband look at the photos for a few minutes. he doesn’t know either!
something used for baking perhaps?
Warm now……..
…..well the carpenter reaches the top with his telemark skis and starts running down the hills. He has a bad fall and is sent to hospital. There he meets a nurse and the air fills with love. He knows that he will never been skiing again so instead he uses the wooden stiks/the skis as candle holders when he proposes. The nurse says yes and a year later the wood can finally be used as it was originally ment. A playpen for the twins……..
This is too crazy, isn’t it……Must be the white wine I have enjoyed…….
I will be here tomorrow to see the correct answer.
Hmmm…here goes another 2 guesses.
1. Set up pins in the holes for French bowling!!
2. Stand up bottles in them and shoot at them..like a firing range!!!
Oh brother…I am getting desperate!!
something for making candles????
delphine and nancy
Reminds me of some wooden tool my mom used to plant the seeds in even distances and exact rows. Maybe I should get some sleep? *grin*
Reminds me of some wooden tool my mom used to plant the seeds in even distances and exact rows. Maybe I should get some sleep? *grin*
Oyster sticks, for starting the seed oysters on when farming them?
I have two guesses, one is a stick to measure the amount of water used in your garden. The stick would lie next to the row and when the holes are filled the watering is complete.
My next is to measure the depth of water in a lake or river.
This is fun!
Cindy
water diving rods?
oops I mean water divining rods, thought that looked like a typo!
Looks like part of a brace for holding spools of yarn for a loom.
Ice molds, propogation things for seeds (water and one seed in each dip).
Hmmm, I don’t have a clue, but of course you made them BEAUTIFUL!
xo,
Kim
Here I go again… you place your skeins of dyed wool on the dowels (that are no longer there) and plunge them into the stream where running water takes away the excess dye…
This is really good you clever girl!!!!
Something used to measure the depth of a well?
Ok, I may be posting twice (I am not sure what happened to my last post…)
Could it be a way to get salt? Put sea water in it and let it evaporate and leave salt behind?
Water..ok.
Here we go again! Are they part of a dock or a pier? For measuring the tide? Are they part of a boat where fisherman somehow fit their poles on them? Rain gutters from an old house? Corey, you are officially torturing me!!! I hope you are enjoying yourself 😉
A-Hah! But of course…they were for balancing the rare macaroons made in a small remote French village years ago. Story has it that every so often, the poor French peasants were suddenly and rudely ordered to make their famously rich macaroons for the French gods who lived in the snowy mountain peaks of the Alps.
A young peasant girl (played by Audrey Tatou in the upcoming film adaptation)was chosen to walk in high heels and a frilly Galliano dress up the rugged terrain, while balancing two long narrow macaroon serving boards on her narrow shoulders.
It was long journey and often the young girl wanted to scarf down one of the rich macaroons to take her mind off her sore feet (damn those high heels!). To her credit, she never ate one macaroon (hence this french woman never got fat)and she made it up to the top of the mountain, to ring the doorbell of the French gods. The story gets a little vague at this point. Some say, the French king of the gods answered the door and he was smitten with the young girl’s beauty. It didn’t hurt that he looked like Johnny Depp, either.
Then again, I would like to believe that the young French girl realized how incredibly ridiculous it was to walk up an entire alp in haute couture just to deliver a board of macaroons, no matter how rich and rare they were. I’d like to believe that she gobbled up every macaroon in one serving right there in front of the appalled French god king and then whacked him over the head for giving such a selfish order in the first place. She then strapped on the rare macaroon serving boards and skied herself down the Alp, into her small remote French village where she called out au revoir! and hopped on a bus to Provence.
Hmmm. Wood. Water. Indentations. France.
Are they sticks for growing mussells upon?
Not nearly as romantic as Susanna’s story, is it?
Is it used to measure the depth of water in perhaps a well or cistern?
This is killing me…..I’ve checked out your site all day today and even enlisted my daughter who just got home from college!!!
Dana in VA
Sticks used to measure how much rain fell?
Corey,
Today I received my Victoria magazine. While lying in bed browsing through it I came upon the ‘Patina of Time’ article…Immediately I recognized your name….I excitedly told my husband, “I know her, I read her blog!”
A wonderful article and I’m elated to see you featured in such a prestigious magazine..
Merry Christmas to you and yours….Betty @ Country Charm
Is it chair rails? xoxo Nita
My husband thinks it’s part of a water clock, whatever that means. I think now it’s part of a water/paddle wheel. The spokes go in the dents and brace the paddles as the force of the water turns the wheel.
They are rain sticks. I see them at the San Diego Zoo gift shop for sale. You turn them over and they sound like rain falling.
xoxo
Gail
Not a playpen to catch kids, but a crabpen to catch crabs…….oh my, what is the English word for that????
The first time I saw it, it reminds me something to raise some seashells like mussels or oisters … Am I closer ???
no idea !