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This has been in my Opa’s house for as long as I can remember.  It’s always sat in the corner by the fireplace, so I always assumed it was a bellows.  As we were cleaning out his house, we had a pile in the middle of the family room that was the “up for grabs” unclaimed pile.  Believe it or not, this was in that pile.  Although I love all things old and appreciated it, I don’t have a fireplace and I didn’t want to take it home to sit in my basement.

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But then, my uncle started playing around with it and he told me what it was.  Well, it was too cool to stay in the middle of the room, so I moved it to my pile.

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Does anyone have any idea what it is?

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It’s about 3 1/2′ long, so it’s pretty big.

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Maybe I’ll send a prize to the person who gets it right first!

Guess away…

Marian Parsons 

Paint Enthusiast | Writer | Artist | Designer

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222 Responses

  6. Definitely part of an old nautical fog horn, my husband used to be in the Navy and loves old stuff like that!

  10. Hello MMS,

    That is something used to kindle the fire…when you start a fire initially it needs oxygen to give it a bit of momentum (almost like a resuscitation for the flame). As the flames start burning up the paper you place around the small pieces of wood, kindling, you use this thing (officially it is called “the poker’ or “the bellows”) to ever so gently blow air on the fire which will help it move the ash that is being created by the burning paper, which in turn gives more air to the fire. As the fire gains that momentum and starts consuming the kindling as well, the poker has done its job. If you don’t have the poker it is at this time that you kind of hop around the fire, or your fireplace, blowing and fanning the small flame(s) with a magazine hoping the fire will start. If you have one of these blowers, as I like to call them, the job of lighting a fire gets much easier. And your lips don’t hurt as much from blowing on the fire ;-).

    Hope this helps…

  12. It’s for putting more air onto the fire to make it “grow.” I know nothing about fire or wilderness:) My parents and grandparents used to have something that looked exactly like that- at least I think it looked like that. They used it to get the fire” going”.

  14. It is a primitive fireplace bellow. Compress the handles together and it forces air out to help start a fire faster. My grandparent’s were farmers and always had one by the fireplace too. I often wondered whatever happened to it when my papa passed.

  18. Fun history!
    If you check out Bonham’s Auctions website you will find Item# 3007 with this description and a photo similar to Marian’s Bellows Fog Horn

    A Triton model bellows fog horn
    Allonxxx… & Orion
    Birmingham, England (British, 19th century)

    with original leather bellows, heart shaped end panels, leather handles, brass throat and neck attaching to a copper speaker tube.
    34 x 11 in. (86.3 x 27.9 cm.) (2)
    Sold for US$ 2,074 (CA$ 2,191) inc. premium

  22. On the Worthpoint website I found this great bit of history too! There is a photo and more on their posting if this history interests you too.
    Marine Ship Leather Bellows Foghorn Brass Fog Horn 1890 Marine Antique!
    1890s Leather Bellows Style Ship’s Foghorn

    Every once in awhile something comes in the door, never before seen and likely never seen again. Case in point, a ship’s bellows-style fog horn. What?

    Believe it or not, 100 years ago when a sailing ship was enshrouded in fog and there weren’t any vuvuzelas (those annoying South African soccer horns) on board, they grabbed up the bellows and started tooting.

    Back in 1650 a fellow named Onions (pronounced like O’Nye-uns) started making bellows and quickly cornered the market in England. His company merged with a competitor named Alldays (interesting names, wot?) in 1889 to form Alldays & Onions , which went on to make cars and motorcycles and whatnot.

    This bellows-style fog horn would have been used on a sailing ship before horns were powered by the steam boilers, and one of the deck hands would have slowly pumped it to produced the long, low sound associated with tugboats.

  23. Bellows for a home fireplace! I have one at my house and so do my parents and grandparents 🙂

  26. A fog horn that looks like and functions like a bellows that was used on sailing ships before horns were powered by steam boilers. When slowly pumped, the bellows-fog horn produced a similar sound to a tugboat noise.

    By the way, speaking of tugboats,at church yesterday, the minister spoke about “tugboat christians” as opposed to “sailboat” and “raft” christians. Which ones do you think weather the storms?

  31. My grandson said he saw it on the show Oddity, he said it was a fog horn on a ship. He said it made a really loud sound.

  33. Are people not reading the post before they guess? This was good for a morning giggle with my coffee…cheers! I want to take bets on how long it will be before you are compelled to restyle this item to fit better with your decor. Bet it turns out gorgeous!

    1. I was thinking the same thing! It’s funny reading everyone guessing “bellows” 😉

  34. My grandparents had one of those too! It’s to keep the fire going in the fireplace. We used to play with that thing all the time…oh the memories 🙂

  37. Looks like a thingiemagigie to add oxygen to fire, but also makes me think of a glass blower! A old home glass blower!

  38. Hi
    What a neat piece!! Just don’t see bellows like that anymore!!! I will be interested to see how you display it !!!

  40. Too Funny ! Marian, can’t we rig up our computers to hear you play,,I mean “sound” the foghorn?

  47. I have read a few posts. It sounds like an item with many uses a bellows, a fog horn, or I was thinking maybe a car horn too. My brother installed one of those fun ooga horns in his first car years ago. Maybe this was the first proto type.
    I love to guess on fun items like this?

  48. Portable foghorn. There is one in a local restaurant here on the mouth of the Grand River where it meets Lake Erie. The restaurant is filled with vintage nautical items.

  49. It is a bellows. We have one and it isn’t even vintage. We got it at Sutherlands I think. I am guessing the long pipe thing on the end is so sparks don’t burn holes in it. If it gets a hole in it then its no good.

  54. It’s a foghorn or Steam ship horn! What a deal you have there! At auction they sell for over $1K. They were made in Birmingham, Englad in the 19th Century. Very nice save there!

  57. …and if thats the case, I’d say that your Opa was repurposing back in his day….just as much as you do in yours!!!

  61. Its an antique foghorn being used as a fireplace bellows………???

    …and if thats the case, I’d say that your Opa was repurposing back in his day….just as much as you do in yours!!!

  62. If your fire syarys to go out, its kinda like blowing on it to get the fire to come back!

  73. Is it some kind of animal call? Thought maybe a goose, but with the word Triton i’m thinking some sea creature or maybe to call the crew on deck. Love all the details.

  81. My grandparents had this in France where I grew up. It is to start the fire when using wood and paper and if you have only ashes or coal and want to add more fire with big pieces of wood. This is called a a soufflés in French so maybe translate it gusset/blower. It works like an accordion, pull the handles apart, close and it blows some air into the fire to fuel it

  82. Yes, I believe it is definitely an Antique Fireplace Bellow to blow air on the coals and make the fire flare up better!

  88. It’s to get a fire going. Use it’s air on the burning coals and voila……there should be flames.

  91. Can’t see my earlier post?? I tried to leave an ebay link. There’s one that sold . it doesn’t look as nice as yours.
    great piece!!!!

  92. It’s a lifeboat foghorn, manually operated, as there would be no power for this in the lifeboat.

  95. http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18528/lot/3007/

    A Tritonmodel bellows fog horn Allonxxx… & Orion
    Birmingham, England (British, 19th century)
    with original leather bellows, heart shaped end panels, leather handles, brass throat and neck attaching to a copper speaker tube.
    34 x 11 in. (86.3 x 27.9 cm.) (2)

    There is a photo of one on this website…..

  96. Triton model bellows fog horn. See the photo on the website given.

    http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18528/lot/3007/

    A Tritonmodel bellows fog horn Allonxxx… & Orion
    Birmingham, England (British, 19th century)
    with original leather bellows, heart shaped end panels, leather handles, brass throat and neck attaching to a copper speaker tube.
    34 x 11 in. (86.3 x 27.9 cm.) (2)

  97. I haven’t read any of the comments, but I think it is some kind of bellows, Or maybe it sucks out the old ashes. I’m itching to clean up the brass on it though, I Love English Brass!

  100. I’ll have to agree with a ship’s fog horn…I JUST something like this on Pawn Stars or Antiques Roadshow! Apparently at sea, you can hear low tones much better than high-pitched whistles. Thought that was interesting!

  101. It is a Uilleann Pipes chanter set or a musette de cour or baroque musette – a musical instrument of the bagpipe family.

  108. It’s definitely a vintage/antique hand fireplace bellow used to furnish a strong blast of air to make a fire burn more fiercely. Very cool find love bug! Europe has a long history with using fireplace bellows. 🙂

  109. It’s a Triton Bellows Foghorn made by Alldays and Onion in Birmingham England. Alldays and Onion made things from bellows to cars in the 1800s. These big fog horns were used on ships to alert others with a loud “honk”.
    Today it could be used as an alarm clock for sleepy teens on a school morning!

  110. Why is everyone guessing bellows when she already said that wasn’t it? She clearly knows what a bellows is.

    1. A bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. There are fire place bellows, bellows in foghorns and also in old cameras.

    2. I was thinking the same thing, Allison. They must not have actually read the article properly. Some other interesting answers though. I think a lot of people just jump to the bottom of the comments and don’t read them all either. Very interesting piece.

  117. It looks like a bellows to me……but what do I know. lol You could even use it for decoration by a gas fireplace.

  119. Well, it is a bellows but if it wasn’t used to encourage a fire to flame perhaps it was used to suck up the ashes…then you could whoosh them out into the outdoor ash pile. I grew up with wood stoves and still have one in my cabin in the Rockies and such an invention would really be helpful.

  124. You are getting some funny comments, but I too think it is a bellows meant to blow air onto the fire which ignites a flame again from the smoldering wood.

  127. This item is a foghorn bellows made by the Triton Company to be used on a ship as a foghorn.

  128. It’s a ‘whatchamacallit’ made in the 1800’s devised to make later generations wonder. lol

  136. You fan a fire to get it going after you start it with kindling……like blowing on it or fanning with a newspaper…it does the work for you in quick measure

  143. I’m pretty sure it’s a Bellows. I used to have one something like it – just not so old.

  144. I thought you might be interested in a deal I ran across this week. Go to onlinegoodwill.com which is the Nashville online site. Look at ‘all categories”. Then search pressed glassware. There are two sets of 8 piece blue glasses. The size seems to be juice glasses but they are very pretty. I know you like blue! The bid right now is $5.00 for each set plus shipping. The main site is shopgoodwill.com. I have gotten some great deals on the online goodwill site. If you shop at the one in your area then you can go and pick up your treasures with paying shipping which is why I only shop at the Nashville area site. .

  147. I didn’t know the true name but just as you, I knew it was an instrument to stoke a fire in the fireplace – please you knew or at least some member in your family as it laid in the pile. I am going to ask again in front of all your followers since you refuse to respond to my questions. That’s right, ladies, she doesn’t respond to me. I am already working on fall and in an attempt to make a little change to help me live when will you disclose how to make the boxwood wreaths as well as the magnolia wreaths – this is my 3rd request without any response……. If you want to keep it a secret I understand but I thought you were all about DIY and sharing. I follow only a few people and all of them disclose – why not you? I am very disappointed in you MMS.

    Carolyn

    1. I was so surprised to see your post… Marian shares so much with her readers. Keep reading… I am sure the tutorials for the wreaths will come out soon. Don’t be discouraged by not getting a response. Marian is a young mother and wife with a lot on her plate. I am sure she means no disrespect. I can only imagine how it must be to walk in her shoes – busy, busy, busy – her business is growing so fast that it must be crazy, overwhelming, uncontrolled chaos. I hope you find what you are looking for, if not in this blog – in another. Blessings to you, fellow blog reader! 🙂

    2. Carolyn, I’m so sorry I didn’t respond to your questions, but, as much as I try, I just can’t answer every single question. In a few of the posts where I showed the wreath, I shared that the tutorial was one I wrote for HGTV.com, so it will not be posted on my blog, but I will share a link to it when it is live on their site. I will stay true to that promise and will share it when it is posted.

      I am sorry to hear you’re disappointed.

      Marian

  149. ‘Red Factor’ Charolais- for your love of cows!
    Mountain Coral- after the jewelry this color but I like the name for the significance of mustard seeds and mountains!

    Love the new color!

  150. It is part or most of a uillean bagpipe, needs a few more pieces like the end and reed, etc. to work properly. It was just a very simple version of the instrument we know as bagpipes.

  151. Looks like a bellow for a fireplace or stove but I think you said that isn’t what it is. Is it something to do with a boat? Maybe a device that was used to blow air into a coal fire on a boat?

  153. This is a BLASBALG (German). It means “BELLOW”…

    Definitions
    a mechanical device that blows a strong current of air; used to make a fire burn more fiercely or to sound a musical instrument

    My husband, who is from Switzerland, told me what it was!

  154. It is an old-time bellows. Blacksmiths used them to inject air into fires to superheat the metal they were forming.

  157. Wow Carolyn, I think you are just being cynical, Marian has opened her heart, her lifes’ work on this blog, and taught with step by step instructions so much. She is an inspiration and I find her to be amazing.

    She also said ” I assumed it was a bellow’s” so I think that it must be something other than, maybe some type of horn.

  158. I had to look it up and I think it is a foghorn. That might be dangerous to have in a household with two youngsters.
    I once wrote to Marian about some tiles that she got and kind of whined about how it must be nice to get stuff, etc. a little green eyed, feeling sorry for myself, but in a polite way. Well, Marian took the time to write back to me and explain her perspective of the situation. I was amazed, humbled and very impressed that this busy, talented lady would take time to write to me and tackle what others might have seen as just sour grapes. Marian is the real deal and I would bet that she just messed up, like we all do. I have been reading her blog from the beginning and she just is a natural talent.
    I wish I could get a transfusion of her energy…it would be wonderful. Thanks, girlfriend, you are doing the best you can and we all appreciate it.

  159. It is a Alldays & Onions Oak and Leather Foghorn Bellows. See Information: Alldays & Onions Oak & Leather Foghorn Bellow.

    A late Victorian or Edwardian era maritime fog horn, fashioned from Oak and Leather, finished in brass with the Birmingham England maker’s mark, ALLDAYS & ONIONS.

    A fellow with the last name of Onions (Pronounced as o-NYE-uns) founded a bellows-making company in 1650 and quickly cornered the market in England. His company merged with Alldays in 1889. Later, the company produced some of the first English cars and motorcycles.

  161. It is a Portable Triton Foghorn often used by the English Navy….see the brass “Horn” on the end?

  164. We have one of those too! We use it to help get the fire going in the wood stove! It was given to us by my husband’s step father, I believe it may have been passed down through the years.

  165. It’s a European thing.Grew up with those.It blows air in the fireplace to get the fire going .

  171. Ok ! You were right at the beginning and knew it was (originally) bellows but I think the pipe bit has been changed – so I’m going to guess it now plays some kind of sound, maybe like a cow mooing or a wee tune. Mary

  172. I was so excited when I saw the picture and knew what it was but then I read the comments and found I wasn’t the only one! 🙂 Maybe I watch too many old movies and read to many books set in the past. I was going to say a thing to blow air in to the fire and that one looks a bit longer in the part that goes near the fire to keep you away from the heat when you are using it. I wasn’t sure how to spell bellows but I see the other ladies got a handle on that. 🙂

  173. It “blows” air to build the flames of a fire when it is pumped. When pumped properly (slow & steady), it blows a steady continuous steam of air to fuel a fire, much more productive than our lungs! Beautiful piece! I’m sure you can find many spaces on your walls for it in your beautiful house, and what a fantastic PHOTO PROP for you, and sentimental as well, lucky girl!

  177. They had something like this in the housekeeper’s room at Biltmore. It looked like a bellows, but the guide said it was an old vacuum! Is that what this is?

  179. It’s called a “soufflet” ; this is the French word. I have one near my fireplace.
    Sorry but I do not know the English name for it.
    Anne from France

  182. It’s a foghorn… but I won’t lie… I looked it up by Googling “Triton bellows.”

  183. Fireplace Bellow. OK, I’m 51 and can’t believe how few people knew what the item in the photo was….LOL. My parents had one and when the fire would start to die out, I would press the two handles of the Bellow together (actually pumping action) to produce air toward the fire so the fire would get more oxygen and ignite or flame up more. Yummy, then throw some marshmallows on a stick and slowly roast them!

  185. I don’t know what it is…but certain parts of the leather sure look a lot like your new paint color??…hmmmm

  186. My next door neighbors had one of these. I never knew the name of it, I just liked to play with it and blow it in my sister’s face when she annoyed me! It always smelled of smoke. I don’t remember ever seeing them actually use it on a fire, but they kept it on the hearth.

  187. Don’t know what it is but it can’t be a bellows because that is what you assumed it is. Then your uncle explained what it is. Looks like a bellows, sat beside the fireplace, but evidently isn’t.

  196. It’s a fireplace bellow….we use an old one, as well, to create a draft and help ignite the crumpled paper/kindling wood in the fireplace.

  197. Yep, the ones who said it is a fan to get the embers aflame are correct. Pretty cool, or should I say hot item! Ha! Blessings

  199. Looking at the manufacturer’s name, Triton gave me a hint. Triton was a fish-tailed sea god, the son and herald of Poseidon, king of the seas. He calmed the waves with the blow on a conch-shell trumpet. That leads me to believe it must be a fog horn or a ship’s warning horn.

  200. I believe it is used for the fire my family use to have one I’m thinking its long because a furnace could be deep. There very handy if the fires about to go out. Like blowing on a fire to get it going
    Wonder what happened to that one out at the dairy….. hummmm.

  201. it’s a fog horn. ha years ago i saw it on a treasure appraisal show. they had callers calling in to see if they guessed it. pretty funny that i remember that i was only about 10

  204. Well, it looks like the thing the doctor in A Princess Bride sticks into Wesley’s mouth to revive him, only much bigger. 🙂 I obviously don’t know anything. I asked my husband and he immediately knew it was a bellows and how to use it. Of course.

  209. It certainly looks like a Bellow to me! I have an old vintage one, looks different but they are lovely and nice for displaying. It is constructed to furnish a strong blast of air when pumped or pushed together to start a fire! This one is very rare and very neat! Thanks for sharing!

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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