Featured Married Piece?

It's interesting..
Not sure what it is...

At first I thought marriage, but looking at the motifs they look the same.

Unfortunately it's the only picture I have currently
What do y'all think?

 

I think they're an original pair. Either that, or somebody has refurbished the two pieces with a lot of old original shared elements, if that makes sense.

 

That makes sense.
I just cant figure out what it is, lol

It looks like a wanna-be bank tellers window, dresser desk.

I thought maybe from the same set but put together?
Maybe it is originally intended to look like this..

 

It looks to be an asthetic movement piece (1860-1900) if you look for furniture of this style you may be able to find some more information. Asthetic furniture tends to be walnut along with ebonised wood and gilt.

 

This is a mahogany Empire piece. Possibly French I do think all original. As for intended purpose, your guess is as good as mine.

 

Yes, I'd say Empire ca. 1820s-30s. It looks like a liquor "safe" to me; people in rural areas often used their front rooms as "bars," for passing travelers, yet had to lock up the goods after hours, just as we would in their place.

 

That bottle should be locked in there lol

 

Yeah, i am goin with Brad & Ghopper on this one, to bad you can't see drawer construction or back, that might tell you if french/european origin and also determine if it was married.

 

no disputing the fact, but in this instance I would think that if one could afford this piece in the first place they would have no need to open a dive in the parlor...................hospitality before profitability were the keys to civilized society at one time................

 

Maybe it would be to keep the servants honest.

 

LOL, or children!

 

Or both, children being who they are.

 

I think I need a drink....

 

Why do you say that? Who have you been talking to? If its that Gina who does the upstairs, she's lying. You know me better than that, Grandmere. I would never even suggest THAT to a servant. Who said I did? Who? Honest Gram, I didn't do it! Its all HER fault! She started it......................

 

Sure she did. I'm guessing you were an innocent little angel as a tween/teenager?

 

During the war years, when we all lived in my grandparents NYC house, I was in the unique position of being the acting paterfamilias in our home - all of the elder men were away, and family structure held that the eldest MALE was the BOSS. In practice, I was responsible for a household of 21 people, 11 of them staff, along with a constant stream of visitors, military, civilian, and refugee, some of whom stayed for extended periods of time.

If you don't think power can go to your head when your great grandmother has to ask YOU for her quarterly spending money, when YOU get to decide which bedroom a general gets to sleep in, and when YOU hold the power of hiring and firing staff, you are wrong.

Of course when I got too obnoxious I was slapped down by my mother and no one, NO ONE ever really ruled over my grandmother..........including grandpere.

No, I never actually did anything "bad" or reprehensible...........but knowing I COULD was heady stuff for a young teenager.................

 

Dang. The "man" in charge at about the age to be old enough to shave. That could get a little strange on a good day. ...and I think I like your grandmother.... My maternal one could probably have given her a run for her money. Grandma was a New York state (Catskills) farm kid who left home at 14 and went to work as a maid in New York City. She worked mostly for Jewish families, so odds are she and Grandmere never would have run across each other. First she ended up running the house and then the family business ... and everyone in it.

My other grandmother was an independent cuss too, but Mom's mother would definitely have handled some boy getting too big for his britches.

 

I come from a long line of very strong, very grand women, on both sides of the family (though they are related). I suppose most had to be strong, considering the men they married. Although, once again, most of them were distantly related to their spouses.

I beg our pardon!!!! I NEVER got too big for my britches.......I just made some really poor decisions........many without consulting those who knew better than I. But I did succeed in getting a truly nasty general "demoted" to sharing a bedroom with an enlisted man (poor soldier - I never thought about HIM). Hey, when you have the last empty bed in New York, you get to make the rules...............

And I didn't start shaving until about three years after the war was OVER...........and all of the maids except one were way too old for a guy my age to be interested in. The tweeny, a teenager, was mentally challenged (daughter of one of the estate farmers) and held no "interest" for anyone except some (unwarranted) pity. She was a lovely girl but she could be scary at times (remember the era please!).

Sorry to put all of this out here - It is all so fresh in my memory right now because I am chronicling it for my forum. It was a period with a cast of characters and events that are unique in American history and I hate for it to be totally lost to time.

 

It sounds like life got interesting there for a while.(LOL) I'd love to have seen that General's face, and bought the poor enlisted guy a beer. Or five.

 

We always tried to treat the enlisted men "better" than the brass............but it was difficult sometimes considering my grandfather's and father's ranks. Our billiard room became a sort of mini USO to the extent that we had a rotation of servants and family that had to be available until rather late into the night to accommodate some personnel. The one concession we had to make was to give the enlisted men meals in the morning room (with a family member present) as opposed to the dining room if there were more than one in residence at a time. We apologetically told them it was a space issue at the table..........but in reality we feared that many of them would be uncomfortable and possibly intimidated with the style of service in the dining room. To our credit, we NEVER fed "our boys" in the kitchen or servant's hall. Though there was the occasional "pig" I wished we had a trough for................


I must stop this! All of this is intended for my forum, where it will be organized in context and be much more amusing and understandable.............