I can't remember getting this, although I'm fairly sure that it came from my father, who's forever finding things cheap, realising he doesn't want them and passing them on to me. I say that I operate a home for waif and stray inanimate objects.

As far as I can tell, it's an oven glove in the shape of Wallace in the popular series of plasticene animations by Nick Park. I expect it was cheap because people actually wanted Gromit-shaped oven gloves, but were too cheap to buy the pair.

I could never bring myself to use it, because, fictitious character or not, it's somebody's face, after all. Why would I want to pick up very hot objects with someone's face.

Anyway, it just got stuck on guitar headstocks, or left around gathering dust and grot until it was uncleanable and I came to the conclusion that I'd just have to throw it away. Not that throwing away the face of a much-loved children's animation character is any easier than using it to pick up pot-lids.