French Pétanque Boules, Set of 6

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This is a two-player set of six Pétanque boules make of polished steel which is the common standard today. They … Read more This is a two-player set of six Pétanque boules make of polished steel which is the common standard today. They have the manufactures mark and two with ‘UBOT’

Pétanque is played by two teams, each comprising one, two, or three players. Three boules are used per player in singles and doubles games, and two per player in triples games. A small wooden ball called a "jack" (cochonnet) serves as the target for the players' throws.

Before the mid-1800s, European boules games were played with solid wooden balls, usually made from boxwood root, a very hard wood. The late 1800s saw the introduction of cheap mass-manufactured nails, and wooden boules gradually began to be covered with nails, producing boules cloutées ("nailed boules"). After World War I, cannonball manufacturing technology was adapted to allow the manufacture of hollow, all-metal boules.

The first all-metal boule, la Boule Intégrale, was introduced in the mid-1920s by Paul Courtieu. The Intégrale was cast in a single piece from a bronze-aluminum alloy. Shortly thereafter, Jean Blanc invented a process of manufacturing steel boules by stamping two steel blanks into hemispheres and then welding the two hemispheres together to create a boule. With this technological advance, hollow all-metal balls rapidly became the norm. See less