Humans have been eating eggs since prehistoric times. Eggs are fragile though, so they must be handled and cooked with care. This fact has inspired many inventions, such as this egg poacher from the first half of the 20^th century.

The metal holder has six separate oval pockets for poaching whole eggs by plunging the entire carousel into boiling water. Since each mould can be removed from the holder separately, eggs may be cooked and served individually, with little risk of them splitting.
These curved moulds are also ideal for serving, as they may be placed in front of each guest without detracting from the aesthetics of the table setting. Various utensils for poaching eggs still exist today, with or without carousels, although they are now made of other materials (stainless steel, silicon, steel with a non-stick coating, etc.).
This object once belonged to the prestigious Luigi Nessi collection, which comprised thousands of antique tools and objects collected between 1970 and 2009.