Medieval Cup Holder

Just read the different comments/ suppositions on what the iron thingy was used for - loved them all, especially the "torture device"! lol!

Sorry to have to disappoint you all but what that thing really is used for is for drying wine bottles. You know, you've finished the wine, the bottle is empty. But you don't throw that bottle away because after your next grape harvest (remember: Loire Valley = wine country) you will re-use this (and all your other empties) when your new wine is ready for bottling. Right?

So what you do is this: You carefully wash and rinse that empty bottle and then you spike it on the above contraption to dry.

You didn't look into my wine cellar? I have two of these thingies there! Don't know what they are called, though, at least not in French; in German it would be "Flaschen-Igel" = bottle hedgehog. Maybe it's the same in French: "herisson"
In the Loire Valley you can buy these in practically any supermarket (along with corks and anything else you'd need for bottling wine, btw.)
.... which is why I don't think I'd want to bet on this bottle hedgehog in Chenonceau really being an antique piece........