Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

French Antique Guessing Game, I would bet you won’t know what these are!

French Antique, Guessing Game

French antique guessing game, I do not know how many I have had over the years. But I do know that some were easier than others. The correct answer has always been guessed, though sometimes it took a few days to come up with the answer. Most of the French Antique Guessing Games that I have had on my blog, I have known the answer. But today's stumped me big time, and I think it will stump you too. 

 

Guessing game, French antique

What are these things?

Some clues:

Most of them are between an inch or two long.

Some have a screw on the end, though others have a peg like base.

They are made of porcelain, and are about a hundred years old.

They are curvy, curly.

 

Tongue in Cheek's French Antique Guessing Game

I would bet you won't know what these are. But, over the years of having these guessing games I have come to see that the things I think are easy to guess aren't, and the things I think will stump you, you guess correctly in a matter of seconds.

You probably will know what these are… smarty pants!

 

What are these

How to play:

Write your guess in the comment section or on my FaceBook Page, or send me an email.

The first person with the correct answer will win one of them.

Also, or 

Write your creative response in the comment section or on my FaceBook Page, or send me an email. The one I find the most original and or creative I will send one as well.

The French Antique Guessing Game ends tomorrow or the next day. 

Good luck!

 

 

 

Comments

60 responses to “French Antique Guessing Game, I would bet you won’t know what these are!”

  1. becky up a hill

    Guides for garden vines.

    Reply
  2. Michele K. Waite

    . . . well, well, well – my first thought and my guess is: I think these are used to hold APRON STRINGS and are placed in the kitchen. Perhaps they can be used to hold the CORNER of a TOWEL. Certainly they hold somethings IMPORTANT and could be used in almost any room in the house. I will use mine by my front door to hang my ‘treaured crystal’. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Ed in Willows

    porciline insulators for wire

    Reply
  4. jend’isère

    Screwed into sides of ovens to prevent cooked snails from sticking and evely cooking.

    Reply
  5. Jean

    Anchors for curtain tie backs?

    Reply
  6. LauraInSeattle

    Guides/pegs for stringing up (party)lights?

    Reply
  7. Barb Langlois

    Scew into a piece of wood in a closet and used to hold articles of clothing. Could also dangle laced up shoes from them.

    Reply
  8. Kim G.

    Maybe they are used to guide embroidery floss in a factory.

    Reply
  9. Nicolette

    To hold up shelves in a cabinet.

    Reply
  10. Brian Harrison

    Hi Corey,
    Are they electric wire insulators to hold the wires in barns or fields or even in gardens?
    Wendy Harrison(Brian Harrison)

    Reply
  11. Susan

    Porcelain insulators for running wires

    Reply
  12. Jennifer

    I say they are tube and post wiring parts.

    Reply
  13. Merisi in Vienna

    Southern Belle dreadlocks curlers!

    Reply
  14. Mo’a

    Espalier pegs for tender shoots.

    Reply
  15. Mo’a

    …and/or to hold the wire or twine in place

    Reply
  16. Kathy

    Looks like what was used in tube wiring in homes a century ago when electricity was placed. But I am probably wrong, lol.
    Kathy

    Reply
  17. Janet with Eiffel

    I too think they have something to
    do with electric wiring.
    However, since most everyone else
    thinks so as well.
    They probably have nothing at all
    to do with electrics.

    Reply
  18. WR

    The twirly ones are ear cleaners. Attached to the bathroom wall, you just insert in your ear and twirl and voilà, a clean ear.
    The hookie ones also attached to the bathroom wall are to hold the towel that cleans the twirly ear-cleaner.
    The peg one is to squeeze in your hand while submitting to the painful ear-cleaning.

    Reply
  19. gail

    To hold a clothes line wire.

    Reply
  20. Jeannie

    I too thought they were for electrical wiring or for wires in vineyards for grapes. The screw end ones would go into the posts and the plain end ones would go into the ground.
    Perhaps they are used for escargot? The “growers” scatter them around the area on posts or in the ground. Then when the escargot wants to shed its shell, it uses it like we would a shoe horn. Pops out and then finds a new shell. (I may be confusing escargot with hermit crabs. LOL!)

    Reply
  21. Kristin

    Corkscrews!

    Reply
  22. Toni

    curtain rod finials

    Reply
  23. Leigh NZ

    They are all ceramic glazed porcelain insulators for wires.
    Porcelain Insulators can tolerate high quantity of heat and current. Used for wiring in houses, barns, farm fences etc.
    They would make wonderful hangers for my antique chandelier crystals and to hang my fairy lights and lanterns!!

    Reply
  24. Diogenes

    OK, that’s funny!

    Reply
  25. Smee

    I too was going with ornamental porcelain hooks or insulators used to hang or drape electrical wiring back when it was a new fascination. (Can you remember seeing photos of those old homes with wires just hanging every which way!)Not sure if the popular answer is correct, but it gets my vote!

    Reply
  26. Lynne

    Porcelain insulators for holding the wires . . .
    Would be an interesting look for an antique chest as handle knobs . . .
    I think an creative art piece is coming into view. On an old piece of barn wood, uniformed hole placement and these placed to make the design. Conversation keeper if nothing else!

    Reply
  27. christy s.

    the is more of a fanciful guess, but i’d venture that these were screwed into the wall near to chairs around the edge of a room (like a ballroom). ladies would hang the wrist loops of their long skirts on these pegs which would facilitate their rising when asked to dance by a handsome man!

    Reply
  28. carol

    The one with a peg is used to hold your thread for making lace, the curly one is the first dental floss holder, and the one that looks like a knob is the first self foot massager. Just put it on the floor and roll your foot back and forth! Voila!

    Reply
  29. Momof5

    I have no idea what they are but can think of lots of things to do with them.

    Reply
  30. Zosia

    Dental implants for vampires. The curly ones are for vampires who fall in love with humans. Despite being drawn to the blood of his/her beloved, a vampire with the curly teeth, won’t be able to bite the neck of their paramour :-).

    Reply
  31. Celeste

    The word unick comes to mind….

    Reply
  32. martina

    moustache forms/supports…so when a gentleman has waxed and gotten the basic style of his tonsorial masterpiece he faces these objects and rests the handlebars for a few minutes so the moustache is perfectly shaped.

    Reply
  33. karen

    In the victorian era, when someone painted a picture of a boar, they screwed these on the painting as tusks…
    tusk,tusk…that was easy!

    Reply
  34. Lemon Tree Tami

    Are they meant to screw in the wall for temporary laundry lines across the bathtub?

    Reply
  35. debra

    Corey, are they wire supports for knob and tube wiring?
    I am thinking purely technical here, no creativity . . .

    Reply
  36. monika

    I think they were used for stringing up the wires used to tie up the vines in vineyards.
    But I love the idea of tusks…

    Reply
  37. Loretta

    To take the escargot out of the shell, but of course!

    Reply
  38. Joy

    Artificial tails for piglets born without. Not that we’d encourage the dear little things to have body image issues.

    Reply
  39. Leigh NZ

    Of Course!!

    Reply
  40. Marilyn

    It has already been guessed, but they are to string electrical wires or bob-wired fences. I do recognize the insulator.

    Reply
  41. Sara Riley

    I love your guessing games, but I have no clue what these could possibly be! Tell me, tell me!!!

    Reply
  42. RebeccaNYC

    I think they are for electrical wiring, too. We had similar stuff all over our victorian-era house in Philadelphia. And I LOVE Lynn’s idea of using them as decorative handles on a chest of drawers!!!

    Reply
  43. Val

    These are used to wrap wire and screw into post to train grapevines.

    Reply
  44. Evelyn

    Well, they are probably for wire as many people have said. But I fancy them screwed or pegged into a piece of wood in Madame’s boudoir…they would hold her hair ribbons!

    Reply
  45. 24/7 in France

    I have no clue, but my FH is guessing they are “porte torchon de cuisine” (hooks to hold kitchen tea towels)??

    Reply
  46. Nancy Ovesen

    Picture hooks…
    NancyO.

    Reply
  47. Lyn

    They’re for electrical wiring. Your guessing game is great fun, Thanks

    Reply
  48. Carol L

    Yup, they are insulators for running electrical wire through a home. I think they would be great today in a wall with wire strung through them for hanging photos or paintings or even curtains between them.

    Reply
  49. Dd

    Piggy tails for porcelain pigs.

    Reply
  50. Chris Wittmann

    I think they could be guides for tying plants, young tree branches, grape vines or some such thing…used to train the branches and so could be screwed into a wall, like when training espaliered trees….

    Reply
  51. Carolyn

    They are electrical insulators. I think they would be pretty holding up bunting for a party or wedding. Use one to tie up a bird house or a pretty bottle holding flowers. Use as tie backs for the window treatments in
    the apartment. Thread with a beautiful ribbon.

    Reply
  52. jhon

    “Don’t let making a living prevent you from making a life.”
    http://www.bestinbackyards.com/swing-sets

    Reply
  53. Allison in SF

    These look like J hooks that are doing the pee pee dance.

    Reply
  54. Heather

    Corb cob holders

    Reply
  55. Brenda L. from TN.

    They look like porcelain insulators to me also.

    Reply
  56. Franca Bollo

    For once Franca knew the answer but then so did half your readers. Who knew we all live in old houses?
    Riffing on the tails for porcelain piglets, these could also be horns for porcelain rams.
    They would make cool cob holders, too. Frank Purrkins thot they were for rubbing whiskers against. Stupid cat.

    Reply
  57. Beatnheart

    early false teeth…simply screw into the jaw after removing rotten teeth.

    Reply
  58. Gracie

    To hold curtains

    Reply
  59. Brenda, Walker, LA

    THREAD OR WIRE GUIDES
    KindredHeartsAntiques@gmail.com
    xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

    Reply
  60. french antique

    This looks like a hooks

    Reply

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