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NY Good Questions: Information on This Foot Stool?

3.10stool.jpgHello AT,

I have been wondering what this item is? Strange footstool?

I was hoping that your vast audience with crazy amount of knowledge would know.

I found it at a older neighbor lady's house when I helped the family clean up the wall to wall, treasure trove of stuff.

Not too sure what do with it. It is an older piece and it is in pretty good condition, I hate to get rid of it...

(Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.)

3.10stool1.jpg

But with the Spring Cure starting... I really do not need more stuff!

Thanks for the help. Any suggestions are welcomed. Keep up the great work AT.

Thanks! Jeen-Marie

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seating - benches & stools, Good Questions

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Comments (9)

possibly used for pedicures?

posted by maude on 2008-03-10 13:43:40
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Could it have been used in a shoe store? I vaguely remember stools like this used to rest your leg on while shoes were being fitted.

posted by whitexb on 2008-03-10 13:49:31
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yep, I vote for shoe store device. I have fuzzy memories of the nice man who used to fit me for new shoes at Buster Brown's at the start of each school year. I think he sat in the back and put my foot up on it in front.

posted by urbangranolagirl on 2008-03-10 14:13:42
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I think it is a "gout stool", for sufferers of the condition. See this site,

http://www.bettym.com/images/collections/benches/20681-LordshipsGoutStool.html

for an image of another gout stool.

Not sure why they were designed this way, but it has something to do with the nature of gout.

posted by Carder on 2008-03-10 14:28:36
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http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=200.23.001.06


this is the closet photo I could find of a gout stool

posted by jako on 2008-03-10 14:33:29
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Jako, that is the only other one I could find too. But the shape is identical.

posted by Carder on 2008-03-10 14:44:52
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I am under the impression this stool is a traditional form, outliving its more clinical originations and is merely decorative nowadays... this stool might be old, maybe 1890's with 50's upostery or it could be merely mid 20th century in age, the legs seem too plain for 1890's... the plain tapered legs might be 18th century however... if you pull away the upolstery a 200 year old stool should be obvious in its age showing many old nail holes etc from various re-upolstering over the decades, maybe with the old horsehair stuffings

posted by jako on 2008-03-10 15:50:03
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cat lounger.

posted by lightspeed on 2008-03-10 16:31:39
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My first thought was shoe store stool.

posted by Christine (the one in DC) on 2008-03-10 20:57:43
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