Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s Art Deco bellhop but the face of it

but the face of it and flip side with pattern inspiration is preserved

is made of carved water buffalo horn

purchased from a PA seller

A theorem painting of pears on velvet with embossed silver paper trim

Scandanavia and the U

Iron Studded French Boules/Petanque Ball with Cross Pattern, c. 1880s Art Deco bellhop but the face of itA 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