I poicked this up in Chamonix in 1980. Never used it.

Impressive idea!

shame it's unused. i'd imagine this would be a tricky to work one-handed, especially if the flared bits are wedged tight.

The idea of creating a nut type piece of protection that can fit range of placements is a great idea, but definitely needs to go back to the drawing board

I worked in Thomas and Taylor in Sheffield in the early 80's and we had one of these in the shop as a tester. Never sold any!!

Here, would that kind of thing not be useful on alpine routes, where you're only after a couple of nuts?

It is a "Coinceur Gigogne" (nest of nuts) invented by Jacques Paul Fournier (Patent FR 2410487) and marketed by Laprade in France in 1979.