THE FIREPLACE TOOLS
Of the three objects shown in the photo at least two are well known: the tongs for the charcoal, and the shovel for the embers (la tinaglie e la palelle).
The first object on the left, however, is the so called "zuffilature" (blowpipe).
Practically it was a metal tube, rather long with one ending crushed. It was used to blow the embers in the fireplace and to revive the fire. It could be purchased at the country fair, but someone more ingenious, with the blacksmith's help, could have made it with discarded material. It was not rare, indeed, to see by the fireplaces of Fallo "zuffilature" made ( for instance) with gun barrels (there were many hunters then).
Its use was, obviously, forbidden to children because in order to use it they had to come too close to the fire, and also because its use required a certain acquaintance with this tool. In fact more than once it had happened that small children, instead of blowing in the tube, had inhaled thus filling their mouths and lungs with ashes.
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