Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

A Guessing Game “What is this antique thing used for?”

porron

The other day I saw this hand blown glass antique, at my friend's antique stand. She has a massive collection of these sorts of things at her home. She asked me if I knew what they were. I gave her my response, which was wrong, and thought to myself "Now she tells me, now, after years of being mislead."

But the minute she told me, I knew… duh, how obvious, but of course.

Do you know what it is?

The first person to tell me what it is and tells me the name of the object too, will win a antique prize.
 

 

porron

porron

porron

Early nineteen century, hand blown glass object….

A second prize will be given for the most creative answer.

Good Luck and Happy Guessing.

Winners will be announced tomorrow morning.

Comments

75 responses to “A Guessing Game “What is this antique thing used for?””

  1. Donna

    Hi Corey. Could it be a wine carafe / decanter? Just a wild guess. I had something similar years ago. Thanks for keeping your blog fresh every day!

    Reply
  2. Twinkleberry

    Is it for storing and pouring olive oil?

    Reply
  3. Lilly

    Is it a wine funnel? I found this on the internet…. “the wine runs along the wall of the decanter for a gentle descent. In this way the clarity of the flowing wine can be viewed and any excess aeration from a free fall into the decanter avoided.”

    Reply
  4. Donna

    Hi Corey. Is it a wine carafe or decanter? Love your blog! Thanks for keeping it fresh!

    Reply
  5. Jojo

    A cruche? Not sure if these type of drinking vessels have a different name in French but in Lebanon all cafes have these handmade water pitchers on the table. My kids always enjoyed learning to drink water in style!

    Reply
  6. Emma

    Is it a watering pot? It looks like something I’d see in a chemistry lab, but what immediately came to mind was a jar to store blown kisses! If there were a little magic involved…a lover could capture every blown kiss his sweetheart sent to him, and could release them one at a time when he/she felt lonely 😉

    Reply
  7. Natasha Burns

    at first i thought it was something that held and poured oil…. i just hope it isn’t a sophisticated form of bedpan for men! i couldn’t think why they’d need to pour it… maybe it could have had medicinal purposes, like helping athlete’s foot… oh gosh, i should shut my mouth!

    Reply
  8. Marie B. Corso

    Something used in the apothocary (pharmacy).

    Reply
  9. Cynthia Rieth

    It reminds me of something I have to separate broth and fat to make gravy – the fat rises to the top and the broth is poured out of the spout. Have a wonderful day! Cindy

    Reply
  10. Marie-Noëlle

    funnel on one side, decanter on the other one…
    The answer has been given !!!…
    … I myself think it’s a matchmaking decanter …
    Thanks to its funnel, you can mix the 2 salivas or bloods or tears … or sweats (oh, how romantic!!!)… to which you add your secret ingredients … and then you invite the 2 persons and pour that “potion” onto their pieces of pizza…
    I admit this won’t make a win… At least I can very well imagine you in your kitchen(OR bathroom)lab with your “jars” or decanters”, “funnels” or “whatevers” !!!!!!!

    Reply
  11. christine

    Is this not for pouring olive oil, with the spout rather high so that the sediment sinks to the bottom of the decanter and remains there when you pour ( or drizzle as we now say ), or perhaps the same thing but for really organic 19th century wine that hasn’t been filtered !! I have just read the other answers, and I’m not very original !

    Reply
  12. Beachy

    YES! It is a fat separator for gravy! 😉

    Reply
  13. Beachy

    (We sell them at our cookshop.) 😉 But not glass! lol

    Reply
  14. Lee

    looks like something to clean wax out of your ear… warm water could be poured from it…

    Reply
  15. Sheala

    Are they antique nettie pots?

    Reply
  16. SusanB

    Probably used to separate cream from cow’s milk….

    Reply
  17. Helen Wong

    Hi Corey, My guess is it’s a decanter for an oil lamp.

    Reply
  18. Mahala

    Is it a wasp or bee catcher?

    Reply
  19. Tammy W

    Is that an Opium Pipe?

    Reply
  20. Mahala

    It also looks like a glass barometer for forecasting the weather.

    Reply
  21. Mahala

    A Porron, a wine decanter.

    Reply
  22. Denise Moulun-pasek

    A genie bottle with a fire escape.

    Reply
  23. Sher Miller

    I believe it’s a salad dressing dispenser. If not, it simply has to be a bong.

    Reply
  24. liz

    it’s a “storm glass” or barometer for indicating air pressure and predicting changes in the weather.

    Reply
  25. Brenda L from TN

    I think it seperates the fat from the gravey…or at least that what it looks like…

    Reply
  26. Natalie Thiele

    If your accepting reader votes I vote for Natasha Burns’ guess. Made me laugh out loud.

    Reply
  27. Judith Rodriguez

    Ha!I think it’s for cleaning out ear wax! the size is just about the correct amount needed for that stubborn wax that just won’t come out.

    Reply
  28. Katiebell

    Hmmmmm, wondered if its for rinsing the hands after delicately devouring messy food?

    Reply
  29. Kimberly C.

    I think it is a red wine decanter. No?

    Reply
  30. shannon in oregon

    those are old school neti pots. 🙂 used to clear the sinuses of people from yesteryear…they made them of glass before plastic was even a thought in anyones mind.

    Reply
  31. Kristin

    I’m taking a different route….. Used to get honey, they would burn stuff in it and direct the smoke with the spout to get rid of the bees!

    Reply
  32. ~Therese~

    Hi…some of the answers put a smile on my face. I believe it is a “cruet”. Used for olive oil or balsamic…

    Reply
  33. mene

    It is a bee catcher or wasp catcher!

    Reply
  34. mene

    Whoops! I missed Mahala’s answer, sorry dear.

    Reply
  35. Betsy

    For red wine, the wine is poured in the top and sits and then is poured out the spout and any sediment remains in the bottom. It is the same idea as a gravy separator, except it might be dicey to pour boiling hot gravy into a blown glass container, pottery would be safer.
    On the other hand, think of the magic potions, and the layers of color that would show through the sparkling glass…

    Reply
  36. Mo’a

    This looks very much like a Spanish Porrón…is this the French version?
    The Porrón has a straight spout and still one spills large quantities of vine on ones chest…this one with the spout down looks like it guarantees that more ends up on ones shirt than in the mouth 🙂

    Reply
  37. MaryElle

    whatever it is, I love it.

    Reply
  38. kelleyn

    My first guess would be wine decantors or drinking jugs, but you also probably guess that too. Just for the fun of it I am going to say to smoke pot from.
    However, I am sure that is wrong too.

    Reply
  39. Margaret Lambert

    No one has thought to guess that it is a baby feeder… for milk or very thin porridge.
    I always enjoy your blog, Corey!

    Reply
  40. Dee

    Looks like it’s for wine…but not sure…just know that I want one because I collect green glass like that! haha

    Reply
  41. Jeanette Mc.

    Neti pot for cleaning out the sinus cavity.

    Reply
  42. georgie

    Maybe a type of coffee maker?
    Or, you put hard case plant seeds like peas inside with some water and let the seeds soften and then pour them into the plant bed. They’d pour out one at a time.

    Reply
  43. Claire

    It looks like it’s for olive oil. But I used to have an old ceramic one when I was a teenager that was some kind of inhalation thingy for clearing out your sinuses (but obviously being teenage I used it as a bong)! Desperate to know the use now…

    Reply
  44. Sharon, Morrison Mercantile

    hhmmmm I will go with a liquid separator of some kind. Milk/cream separator sounds most reasonable. Don’t think it is a bong though. I know what they look like.

    Reply
  45. Lorri

    Is it for pouring motor oil in a cute little sports car?

    Reply
  46. Krista

    I think it is a musical instrument =). In a little French village, a peasant boy, a pied piper of sorts, would blow into the spout to produce a sound. This sound was inaudible to all except those who were pure of spirit and emitted positive energy. The sound drew them in to a secret meeting place where they plotted to commit random acts of kindness, thus spreading that positive energy.

    Reply
  47. Shelley@thiswhiteshed.blogspot.com

    With the funnel opening, it appears to be a decanter which you can sieve and puree a fruit base into?

    Reply
  48. D

    HiMiha,
    Looks like a cruet for vinegar or oil to me. Say hello to Yann and
    sacha for me. XXX snd OOO’s Jan

    Reply
  49. Janet

    I’m guessing it’s a bee catcher. Something sweet in the bottom, a cork in the top, and bees crawl in but can’t find their way out.

    Reply
  50. pamelajane

    This looks like a rather puritanical porron, without its cork. Many of the porrons I’ve seen have their neck more sinuously curved away from the spout to balance the tricky flow of wine into (or not) one’s eager mouth. I think this one wants to join in the splashy fun without obviously bending too much from its upright decorum.
    Or else it’s a wine carafe used to pour just a thimbleful into the tiny wine glasses of the elves and fairies who come each holiday to rescue me in the kitchen.

    Reply
  51. Lieselotte

    I´d say it´s for making vinegrette, or it could be a decanter for red wine ? If none of that is correct, it could have been used in hospitals to collect a patient´s urine. But as I´m usually wrong in your guessing games, it must have been used for something totally different, n´est – ce pas ?

    Reply
  52. Marilyn

    Not a clue, but I like them.

    Reply
  53. Karen

    A cruet that dispenses oil from the bottom and vinegar from the top?!

    Reply
  54. kathy

    I think your hand blown glass is a wine pitcher. My second guess (if I get one) would be oil can or would that be oil bottle. Now you know unfortunately the theme from the Wizard of Oz is now playing in my head with the Tin Man saying “Oil can” in the background.
    Your site is interesting and fun.

    Reply
  55. Jane Bulmer

    I think it’s for blowing bubbles at a brocante or flea market when you uncover that special treasure that just speaks to you and you know it’s coming home with you! You clelbrate your treasure by releasing bubbles into the air, before you go off to the nearest cafe for a lovely glass of champagne and more bubbles!

    Reply
  56. Delores

    It’s a porron. For pouring sangria directly into your mouth.

    Reply
  57. Patt

    My first thought being a child of the late 60’s was a bong. AND it seems there are others from my era….BUT I do think it is a olive oil container. Looking back a bong would have been more fun. looking forward I think it would be fun to pour EVOO into little plates waiting with big chunks of french bread. My how times have changed

    Reply
  58. Joan von Weien

    I do believe it is either for pouring wine or olive oil, so that the sediment sinks to the bottom. Joan von Weien

    Reply
  59. Sue

    to give liquids to an invalid? preferably one with no teeth?

    Reply
  60. sandy

    Its a Hooka, for smoking wacky tabacky

    Reply
  61. sandy

    Its a Hooka, for smoking wacky tabacky. I’m also a child of the 60’s

    Reply
  62. Jackie

    Beats me!

    Reply
  63. Sally

    Drat and double drat. I don’t even have an original guess for this one Corey, you Queen of Stumpers, you. An oil cruet seems the likeliest.
    I’m cracking up over the number of bong guesses … flower child of the sixties reporting in cough cough. & I love the genie bottle with a fire escape!
    Happy Stumperoonie Corey and congrats to the winners!

    Reply
  64. Barbara Weaver

    In actuality, I think it is some kind of seperator. A more fanciful guess is that it is used to blow bubbles.

    Reply
  65. NJSue

    This, my dear, is called a “Marriage Pot”. When a gentleman gets to be a “certain age” and begons snoring all night, the slim spout is placed, ever-so-gently, into one of his nostrils, where a thin stream of wine flows into his sinus cavity, thereby waking him up. This allows the wife to quickly fall asleep as the opportunity presents itself. The wider top opening of the pitcher is called the “consolation”; the wife may imbibe liberally when the first part of the plan does not work to her satisfaction, finishing the wine in an effort of putting herself into a stupor…

    Reply
  66. Tamara Giselle

    A netty pot?

    Reply
  67. Carol in California

    I have something similar looking for separating the fat from the soup stock. However, the top opening is wider. So then I thought it separates the cream from the milk… cream floats to top, milk pours out the spout. Seems others have the same ideas. Waiting to learn what it really is. Some of the guesses are just to funny!

    Reply
  68. Betsy

    is it like a spa cup?
    betsy

    Reply
  69. Lindy Rogers

    I think it is a coffee maker..It is very pretty, whatever it is.

    Reply
  70. linda

    Hi Corey,
    Could it be a neti pot for a baby elephant?

    Reply
  71. Mylyne

    A gravy separator that separates the fat from the gravy. Name? Wish I spoke French. 🙂

    Reply
  72. Julie Ann Evins

    Hi Coco, it is a traditional glass wine pitcher typical of Catalonia, but well known in other parts of Spain. It is shaped so that the wine inside will have minimum contact with the air whilst being ready to use at all times. It is called a PORRON / PORRO. The spout is suitable for groups of people to drink from hygienically as no contact is made with the mouth. All kinds of wine are served from these and a smaller version is made for desert wines. There ! Love, Jx

    Reply
  73. AnnieElf

    Fat rises to the top and lovely smooth gravy flows out of the spout???

    Reply
  74. Kelly Minniti

    It’s for olive oil!
    Kelly

    Reply
  75. Kari

    Is it for feeding invalids???

    Reply

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