A fine piece of history from my property, these are antique hair crimpers. They probably had a set of wooden handles on them so the person using them would not get burnt from the hot metal. They would need to be heated on a wood stove and then the hair would be pressed into the curves with the tongs.Unfortunately these are bent out of shape a bit, simliar ones can be found online that were from the 1920’s.
Although they were buried in the backyard only a few inches from the surface, they may previously have been much deeper. Several years ago we had a septic line dug near there, so these may have been moved at the time.