What Is It? game 197

It's time for our collaboration with the always fascinating What Is It? Blog. Can you guess what the pictured item is?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many guesses as you'd like in separate comments. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: The mystery item is, indeed, a boat anchor. Maybe the background image of a ship helped! From the What Is It? blog: "A killick type anchor that was used on a small river freight boat in the 1800s, rocks were placed in the center of it to weigh it down." David Kirkpatrick had the correct answer before many other people did. Sarah Reede had an intriguing funny-but-wrong answer: "It's a 17th Century tic-tac-toe placer. (Fits in the X's and the O's!) Used for sanitary purposes." Both win t-shirts from the NeatoShop!