Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s long 12 x 6 3/8"

12 x 6 3/8"

4 1/4" across at lip of base

The character of the wood and paint on these is just a different thing

hard-cover portfolio

As is: 9 1/4" x 6 3/4"

Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s long 12 x 6 3/8"A beauty. I've found one or two of these over the years but it has been quite a while. It is a French petanque ball (petanque a version of boules), and is an early one, c. 1880s; 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