I got a great gift recently, and I’m really not sure what it is.
Here’s what I do know: There are three of them. They’re sized per the picture, and weigh between 126g and 132g each. I like them, and will use them to Make Things.
I suspect but don’t know that they’re bronze. Each one looks like a dragon claw, holding a ball made from what looks like glass. There is a flat ground on the side of the ball opposite the “arm”, which makes me suspect that these were originally feet meant to support something (and that the flat spot on the ball is meant to rest against a flat surface).
The conical arm is hollow, and open at the end opposite the glass ball. There is a small hole in the side of the arm, perhaps meant to accommodate a screw or nail and affix the whole thing to some larger assembly.
Provenance is unknown, save that they were purchased at “an antique store” (probably but not necessarily within a few hundred miles of Houston, Texas) in Brownwood, Texas.
Gentle reader: If you know or have a good guess as to what th’ heck these are, I’d love to hear from you. Links to photos of these objects as part of some larger, original whole would be especially helpful.
If you have a cool idea for what to build atop them, I’d be glad to hear that as well.
[Update 04 May 2011 DGH: provenance information updated from reader comment.]
Found in Antique store in Brownwood texas (Lake Brownwood camping trip).
semi regularly seen on antique furniture (usually four legs) often bathroom furniture.
matching 4 pieces for lack of woble is always a problem.
3 were provided for the fashioning of a properly themed stool/table/etc.
SZ @#1: Thanks for the update (and the gift!). I’d gathered that they were furniture legs of some sort (and probably not for the sort of furniture meant to bear the weight of an adult human). I’m still curious about specific examples; if you (or anyone reading) see these in the wild still attached to something, snapshots would be much appreciated. Specific information about who made them, where and when would be awesome, but I’m not holding my breath.
This is my admin voice.
SZ @#1: I understand your desire for privacy, and to not have your real-world identity mapped to blog comments, but void.com is 1) a real domain, and 2) not yours.
If you must use a fake email address, please use something under one of the RFC2606 domains like “.invalid” or “example.org”.
If you don’t want to give a URL, just leave that blank — it’s optional.