Maybe this counts as an art piece, and should go into Cafe Society - I’ll leave that to the Powers that Be. But I just had to share it. It’s not just like an ugly sofa, or something worn out or broken down. This piece required serious skill to create. In fact, my working theory is that it was some sort of Final piece in an advanced training class. How else to explain all the disparate elements which seem to bear no relation to each other?
The bear-foot dresser.
Maybe it was the product of an ancestral tree being felled in a storm, this is what they built with it.
Clearly, just a guess!
Looks like veneer, to me; retired cabinetmaker, here, and if I had room in my house, and cash in my wallet, I’d plunge.
Jeez, it’s only 60 miles from me.
Dan
That same manufacturer could make navigation floats, decorated with metallic Arab figures
Bearfoot buoy with sheikhs of tin.
Aieeee…
Dan
I just showed it to My Beloved…and she is calling everybody we know in Virginia and instructing them to not answer the phone if I call.
With those pipes in the back, does it play Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor when you open the bottom drawer?
I’ve seen Art Deco pieces for sale around here - my wife and I are always looking for a mid-century modern piece, and those will get lumped in. Looks like old-school Bakelite hardware, which could by themselves be worth the asking price.
I think it is beautiful. The veneer is beautiful, the drawers are beautiful. If it has any kind of sensible use, the semi-circular cabinet is beautiful – I’m thinking it’s probably shelves for sweaters and things like that. And the highest bid is $110? Someone is going to get a bargain. Of course, I have no place to put it, and I live 3000 miles away, but still.
That is definitely interesting - it looks to me like someone replaced the front feet with feet from an entirely different pieceoffurniture. If you look at the back legs they look like scrap wood. My guess is a woodworking estate saler who found the dresser and used some feet that he got at another sale
I will place this item on an imaginary list of Things I Would Like to Have Some Day.
I’ll never get it, but I will enjoy thinking about it.
~VOW
Love the six-toed feet! 
Perhaps this dresser was made by an alien? That would explain a lot. 
I think it’s a Frankenstein’s monster, cobbled together from other things.
The upper part is consistent in style and quality. Then there is a lower frame which is of a different wood and doesn’t really fit (both stylistically and in shape). Then there are the clawfoot feet which are a totally different style altogether.
Yeah, I think there’s a bit of a mismatch in style, but those feet on a piece of furniture, in general, don’t seem odd at all.
And even with the style mismatch, it’s still a beautiful piece of work.
I’m curious about the cupboard shape, it seems it may have been designed for the storage of some particular item?
The overall drawer-stack beside cupboard reminds me of an old commode, where one would store the chamber pot. Example
But I’m not thinking that this one is designed for that.
As a retired personal property appraiser, I’ve seen other pieces of furniture like that. Well, approaching that level of throw-it-all-together-and-see-if-we-like-it, but never anything quite this, uh, gauche. The best explanation for its existence I can come up with is that it may have been created by a teacher of the decorative arts to demonstrates various styles and forms for the students to disect. But, really, I dunno.
Not entirely, the half drawer is completely different than the full drawers, different wood and handle placement. I feel like the cabinet section and the base are supposed to be together, while the drawers are from a separate piece, which was smaller than the cabinet, thus the step down in height.
The beauty of a pun is in the OY! of the beholder…
That thing is really kinda cool looking, not that far from us, and we have a big enough car to haul it away.
Pity we have no place to put it.
I love it! What a ridiculous piece of furniture. If I lived closer, I would completely bid on that, and find a place for it if I won the auction.
I like this theory – it explains why so many of the elements are beautiful and yet they make no sense with each other.
Yeah, I’m definitely in the “Love it!” camp.
…and I’m about twice that far away. So it ain’t gonna happen…
j