Spooner says Le Pétomane's an object of historic interest (8)
I believe the answer is:
artefact
'historic interest' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'spooner says le petomane's an object' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
'object' could be 'te' (Te is an example) and 'te' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for artefact that I've seen before include "Something man made" , "Manufactured product" , "Human-made object" , "Man-made object (maybe found in dig)" , "Man-made object, of archaeological interest say" .)