French Country · Encyclopedia of objects
Fire and Light
The hearth was the center of the house. Its iron fittings were forged by village smiths who knew how to be artists, and the heart motif recurs on them as a sign of the married couple. (Le feu et la lumière)
Trammel hook (crémaillère)
17th century · wrought iron
Far more than a fire accessory, the trammel held the cooking pot over the hearth and had an almost mythical status in the home. This mid-seventeenth-century example still has its fleur-de-lis, which makes it rare, since many objects lost that royal emblem during the Revolution.
Wedding trammel (crémaillère de mariage)
17th century · wrought iron
Made for the hearth of a newly married couple, this rare trammel is cut with a double heart for their union, topped by a rooster for virility and surrounded by spirals, signs of a fertile life.
Oil lamp (lampe à huile, « chaleil »)
Charente and the South
Lamps with a wick soaking in oil have been used since the Palaeolithic and were still burning in the countryside in the early twentieth century. Called chaleil in the Charente and chalein or calen in the South, they hung close to where people sat, and sometimes the flame scorched the furniture.
Bellows (soufflet)
Leather and wood
Leather hardened by use and a nozzle blackened by blowing on embers. Sometimes a simple bellows becomes a work of art, its leather worked into a face by an anonymous hand.
Candle and splint holder (bougeoir porte-éclat)
17th century · wrought iron
Made to hold a candle, it could also grip between its uprights a splint of wood soaked in resin. Splints gave little light but cost almost nothing. On some holders the clip is shaped as a heart.
Gridiron and ash shovel (gril, pelle à cendres)
17th century · wrought iron
When not in use, the gridiron hung on the wall by the hollow of its heart-shaped handle. The long ash shovel ends the same way.
Peddler's handbell (grelot de colporteur)
Early 19th century · bronze, walnut
Nearly thirty centimetres long, this heavy bell was rung by peddlers as they entered a village, so that women knew ribbons, lace, almanacs and news from afar had arrived. A rare witness of a lost trade.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 117–121. Descriptions summarize the book's reportage and captions; the book was published in 1995, so workshops, people, prices and figures are described as the reporters found them then, and some workshops may since have closed or changed hands.