Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

French Brocante Guessing Game

 

French Brocante Guessing Game

 

 

French brocante guessing game. It has been awhile since I have had one, not that I haven't seen a few things that have stumped me.

Today was a wonderful day at the brocante. Brocantes in France seem to re bloom at the same time as the almond trees blossom. Spring is in the air even though it was 32 degrees this morning.

I will be adding many more things on my online shop in the days to come. Today was a bingo day at the brocante. SO many lovely things… often I ask myself where does all this stuff come from and when is it going to run out? Seriously how many houses in France still have unopened boxes from 1780??? The other day I found just such a box. Full of documents that dated back to 1690! Why would a family keep it all these years, and then one fine Sunday morning put it out for sale at a brocante?

 

French Brocante Guessing Game: What is it?

I just noticed that the woman on the silver container is nude. I guess she didn't have time to put on a bra this morning.

 

 

 

French Brocante Guessing Game

 

What is this silver container used for?

Take a guess in the comment section.

The first person to answer it correctly will win a prize.

Also, the one with the most original response will win a brocante too.

(Prize is a large zinc heart)

 

 

 

 

 

French Brocante Guessing Game

 

I will announce the winners tomorrow.

Happy Guessing!

Facts:

Silver container.

About two inches in size.

1900s.

Topless woman has nothing to do with it…. or does she?

Not sure that it is French.

But it was at the brocante cost: 95 Euros, over a hundred dollars.

No I did not buy it. But asked if I could take a photo of it with my i Phone.

 

 

Comments

64 responses to “French Brocante Guessing Game”

  1. christine

    It looks like a perfume bottle…….

    Reply
  2. Janet Maddison

    It is a perfume vial to hang around one’s neck. The wand distributes the perfume on the skin.

    Reply
  3. denisesolsrud@hotmail.com

    it is a container for sniffing up drugs. because i do not know all the lingo for all that. never did that, but plenty of people i know hav filled me. you scoop some powder on the teeny spoon and snort up into each nostril. and even if i am wrong it is a good idea. Bestest,Denise

    Reply
  4. beatnheart

    Once the tip is removed from the bottle you replace it back with the tip side out…
    then the bottle is screwed into the air pump at your local petrol station…It fills your bicycle tires with scented air.

    Reply
  5. Merisi *duck*

    No doubt, a container for l’elixir d’amour:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNjetb2ZM_U
    (the singers are married in real life).

    Reply
  6. Merisi

    That *duck* is a ghost from the past! 😉

    Reply
  7. Merisi

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsWXeTqaGp0&feature=related

    Reply
  8. tut-tut

    some kind of smelling salts or perfume

    Reply
  9. Chris Wittmann

    Would say for perfume, though I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with that idea. Otherwise…perhaps the container held strong snuff oils for inserting into the nose to clear a stuffy head??

    Reply
  10. Zosia

    A bottle for smelling salts that revive you when you faint.
    An antique breast biopsy kit (hence the bra-less woman on the bottle) :-).

    Reply
  11. Kathie B

    I think it’s that blood vial that Angie used to wear around her neck when she was married to Billy Bob. Did someone swipe it from her when she was at the brocante a couple summers ago?

    Reply
  12. Jennifer

    I think it is a bottle that held black paint or something to paint a beauty mark on a woman’s face. The applicator tip made the perfect size mark!

    Reply
  13. mademoisellerue

    Corey, this is a Gentlemen’s snuff tin!

    Reply
  14. kristin

    Well, it must be something valuable….
    Perfume, drugs, or salt?

    Reply
  15. Liz in Oregon

    I collect cat whiskers too! They are kept in The Whisker Box, an antique tooled leather velvet lined box – been collecting them for years, through many cats. I think maybe this item is used to hang around your neck at the brocante and is there so you can pop your unrealistic bubble of thinking your bank account will allow you to buy ALL the stuff you want! That’s what I’d use it for anyway…

    Reply
  16. gail

    I think it contained oil/wax for men to put on their moustaches, then they could curl the whiskers around the ‘wand’ to get the perfect curl!

    Reply
  17. Franca Bollo

    Laudanum vial.

    Reply
  18. julie

    I concur!

    Reply
  19. Vickie H.

    I also believe this to be a snuff tin.

    Reply
  20. Kim Codron

    It looks like it is for perfume, but that is way too obvious for you, so I am going to guess it has medicinal purposes. Perhaps for Mercurochrome. Yes, that’s my guess.

    Reply
  21. annie

    Hand me on a ribbon a wear me after filling me with perfume.

    Reply
  22. Tracy

    I like this idea!

    Reply
  23. Laurie SF

    Ravaged by war, he reached into the pocket of his grey wool army coat and found comfort with a vile. With all his men dead or vanished. The vile was like a voluptuous pillow. It gave him tenderness and human comfort. Leaning against the damp, trench wall. He closed his eyes and dreamt of her.
    The vile contained poison.

    Reply
  24. Jeannie

    It is a magic vial belonging to Mother Nature. She has a magic elixir inside. When she touches a plant, it magically awakes from the dark winter sleep. Touch a flower bud and it opens to glorious colors. The elixir is made of water from the tears of Mother Nature when one of her creations is harmed. She mixes in the colors from the rainbow and perfume from the Orient and shakes well. Sometimes Mom Nature gets silly and will put drops of the elixir on the wind. That is why you will suddenly wake and see that all the spring bulbs are up and blooming or the leaves have changed overnight in the fall. Winter is when the elixir has run low. Jack Frost takes over with his own vial and spreads the white canvas over the land so that in the spring, we are elated at the color again.

    Reply
  25. Brenda, Walker, LA, USA

    lol….Ok, my first answer was taken of course….here’s an interesting possibility for it also:
    When breast feeding the nipples are put through a test, so the privileged mom, or nurse, would put the medicine on the nipples and the milk ducts when the baby would suck too hard. (Thus the naked breasts on the outside)

    Reply
  26. Marilyn

    Others have guessed what I was thinking. I believe it is for perfume and hangs around the neck. A dab can be applied from time to time in between the breasts.

    Reply
  27. George in Brooklyn, NY

    It is called “‘Gentle Touch’ in a Bottle”. There was a time when women were always expected to behave genteelly. However, sometimes, if a woman was in the presence of, say, a rival or individual who irritated her at a party or large function, she could quickly pull out the bottle insert and poke her unknowing irritant(s) when they weren’t looking. She would then quickly replace the insert back into the bottle. If anyone asked or suspected her of the “crime”, all they would see was her holding what appeared to be a perfume bottle. The nudity on the bottle is a clue to the naughtiness of the bottle’s true purpose.

    Reply
  28. Monica

    I believe it is a kohl container and applicator. That is, the kohl, or eye liner powder was held in the silver container and the ‘wand’ which was inserted into the powder filled container was then applied to the eye, which closed around the wand and allowed both the upper and lower part of the eye to have a dark line on the inside. Then you put on mascara and voila! The most sulferous eyes in town, meet me in the casbah.

    Reply
  29. KANDEE ACUNA

    I think the era is art noveau, it’s probably snuff. Another guess could be smelling salts but generally that was something you just smelled into it wasn’t drug up out of the container. Final answer snuff bottle. Probably sterling silver too with repousse work I think it’s called.

    Reply
  30. carol

    A discreet cocaine container.

    Reply
  31. deb

    HAHAHAHA – too funny! That would explain the boobage!

    Reply
  32. deb

    I thought perfume or smelling salts, but I perfer the eye-poker-outer idea, except it looks like the tip is rounded, so not a very effective EPO!

    Reply
  33. Sharon Stewart

    Maybe a container to hold tooth ache medicine. A little dab will do you.
    Very sweet whatever it is.

    Reply
  34. Robin Williams

    Perfume bottle with wand for applying the lovely scent. I have two similar to yours from Andy and Ashley found in New Orleans. They are displayed on a red lacquered tray along with other small silver items given to me by those two. They sure do know how to please me!

    Reply
  35. Barbara

    I think it’s a snuff box. But how do I know??

    Reply
  36. lorelei

    Hi Corey..I’m guessing a perfume vial?

    Reply
  37. Kathy Barrick

    My serious guess is a perfume vial. My fun guess is a rectal thermometer. I can’t stand myself!!!

    Reply
  38. Annie v.

    is it a vinaigrette? this was used like smelling salts
    Annie v.

    Reply
  39. La Contessa

    Perfume vessel or smelling salts ………………….

    Reply
  40. Lorretta from NH

    I actually have two answeres and they seem to be like everyone elses, either a perfume applicator or smelling salts.

    Reply
  41. Dana Smith

    Is it a small opium flask?

    Reply
  42. littlebadwolf

    it is a poppy seed applicator for when bakeries are stingy with what they put on their bagels. my grandfather never left home without an identical one.

    Reply
  43. maggie schneider

    Parfum en voyage. Definitely. I’m late here on the West Coast. Oh well..

    Reply
  44. Penny

    Of course, it must be, is it not an ear wick? The vial contains oil and is kept warm by the touch of a gloved hand. When too much face powder gets into one’s ear, a delicate twist, dip, and slip of the wick into one’s ear provides instant de-waxing while at the opera or whenever a sweet nothing is whispered.

    Reply
  45. natalie thiele

    Love it! I have a couple of these perfume vials. One, my mother gave me, she never liked it because she thought it was (human) heart shaped. I loved it and had a jeweler attach a silver chain to it so that I could wear it as a necklace. I need to pull this out and wear it.
    The other was a Mexican scene with a canteen shaped vial.

    Reply
  46. Lilly

    Perfume bottle. The applicator wand was for applying the perfume to one’s neck, wrists or decolletage. Oui?

    Reply
  47. Claudia

    Seems to be a perfume bottle, but I’d rather think it’s a vial containing a love potion, and the small wand is used to apply a drop to someone’s drink, or simply squirt it at the loved one with a flick of the wand 😉

    Reply
  48. Lisa-vet

    yep, looks like a perfume bottle. Beautiful.:-)

    Reply
  49. Wendy

    I also thought it could be a perfume vial but my suggestion is that it could be a mustard pot??? I have a glass version like that but no nude picture on front, though 🙂 The nude person got me thinking … would it hold lanolin which is great for sore nipples whilst breast feeding ?? I am waiting with anxious breath to clear this mystery!!!

    Reply
  50. Allison in SF

    I’ve been watching old reruns of Mission Impossible lately so forgive me if my imagination is running wild. Yes, it may look like a perfume vial but it is actually for secret agents to use to carry their secret tonics, as the beautiful woman spy is seducing the evil bad guy. She pulls out the silver bottle of “perfume” to apply delicately to her neck when, wham-o, she actually pricks the applicator stick into the neck of the bad guy, filling him with a paralyzingly agent or truth serum, or whatever her orders were. As he falls into a hypnotic state, she nonchalantly screws the top back on, gathers her belongings, and leaves, as her colleagues, the male spies, enter to gather intelligence…before leaving, though, she looks into a zinc framed mirror to apply lipstick and comb her hair…she winks at her reflection…perfect…

    Reply
  51. Kit

    I was going to say perfume, but there have been so many guesses for that….
    My second guess is that it contained an early form of Tippex, or correction fluid. Paper was expensive back then and you couldn’t waste a sheet just because you blotted the page. So you just dabbed a little fluid from your silver phial and the page was as good as new instantly.

    Reply
  52. Brocante Girl

    It is a container for the glue that antique French showgirls used to apply their false lashes. (In those days the lashes were made from collected kitty whiskers.) They kept the glue bottle between their bosoms to have handy in case of emergency.

    Reply
  53. Nancy Settel

    I would say a snuff bottle. nancy settel sheephsighrin82@yahoo.com

    Reply
  54. Sarah Webb

    I say perfume bottle but a evil answer would be for poison.

    Reply
  55. Jackie

    Why that’s a boob-a-later! If you were small busted you dipped into the boob-a-later and put a few drops of the liquid (inside the container) on your boobies…voila! beautiful boobies!

    Reply
  56. Margo

    It is a perfume bottle, looks like meant to be on
    A chain . I believe if the genteel lady was in
    An area that had bad aromas , she would dab some
    Perfume on a hankie and hold it to her nose.

    Reply
  57. marlis

    all my guesses were already chosen.. however. I am guessing this was used with poison to get rid of a bad date. If the lady was not happy with the manners, demeanor or the character of a fellow, she would put a few drops of the clear liquid held in the vial in his drink. He would fall asleep and she would make her getaway quietly and without causing a ruckus..

    Reply
  58. Chris

    Keep staring at my boobs and I’ll poke your eye out.

    Reply
  59. GingerMoonTrade

    Historically ampoules were used to contain a small sample of a person’s blood after death. This small flask or vial was used by the growing “vampyre” affectionado created by the literary works: Johann von Goethe’s novel The Bride of Corinth(Die Braut von Corinth), poems of vampires of the 19th century by Keats, Coleridge and Baudelaire. This flask was carried as an element of seduction, the bringing of pleasure in death by applying a drop or 2 of blood to the “victim’s” neck before or during an erotic episode.
    NOTE: Only the history is real, the rest is my wild imagination.

    Reply
  60. Diane Dainis

    Perfume or smell salts bottle?
    Whatever it was used for it is beautiful.
    DianeD

    Reply
  61. Kristin McNamara Freeman

    It does seem to me to be one of those containers that a woman would carry with a special solution that could be swizzled into a drink to test for poison. Small, discreet and a simple way to make sure no dangerous or unwanted chemicals had been added to the beverages a lady was served.

    Reply
  62. Paula S In New Mexico

    It is for cleaning ears and noses…..ewwwwww!!!!!!

    Reply
  63. mimi

    Leave it to you to find the original “Love Potion Number 9”! It WAS in France all this time!

    Reply
  64. barbara woods

    purfume

    Reply

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