What Is It? game 288

It's once again time for our collaboration with the wonderfully entertaining What Is It? Blog. Do you know what the pictured item is? Can you guess? Or can you make up something totally wacky?

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, see? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, go to the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: the mystery object is an English champagne tap from the early 1900s, after penetrating the cork with the screw, the small knob is rotated to open the valve to fill a glass, the valve can then be closed to keep the remaining champagne fresh. Berhard was the first with the correct answer, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer came from artanis knarf, who said, "It's for tapping a lovely bunch of coconuts....deedly deedly." That's good for a t-shirt, too! See the answers to the other mystery items at the What Is It? blog.