Guess what this is

[Erich]

I've got a couple these, somewhere, but in chrome. As Ruairidh implies, they are protection of sorts, from the Elizabethan period...not. Oil can spout from the days when oil came in quart cans. I've never seen an all metal can. I grew up with cans with cardboard sides and metal tops and bottoms. I have still have some Castrol 40 W.

Erich in Seattle

[Mick Hanna]

I worked on the forecourt of a service station on an American airbase in Oxfordshire for a number of years, filling up 4 (generally large) vehicles at a time whilst checking oil levels and battery condition where requested, and cleaning the windshields. The servicemen paid in dollars and used petrol coupons as Custom and Excise rationed the duty free fuel. The oil spout is very familiar to me as all the oil cans (in US quarts) had to be opened with them and could be shoved in the oil filler and left whilst rushing around between customers.

I also recall the 'Party 7' cans of pretty disgusting, yet cheap, beer and you could buy a much smaller version of the spout, but I seem to remember you had to make another piercing to vent the nasty stuff.