What's This?

What's this? What's a piece of furniture doing here on a blog about art and poetry. Well, there is a story. I often go to estate sales for fun. Estate sales satisfy curiosity and discovery--cousins to gambling, which I deplore.

So Friday of last week I walk in and see the above table, and I say, hey, that's a good piece, and in three seconds I take the tag off, deciding to buy it. I bet it is the only good thing in the estate sale, I say to myself. I was right; a look around and there was nothing else of value, nothing else of value with heart.

The table is English, circa 1900, a scratch on top and repaired legs where they join the underside, but all the legs themselves are perfectly fine. A piece of thin early plywood has been attached to the underside beneath the drawers, of which there are two with two original brass handles. The drawers pull easily and the fine dove-tailing is very tight and hand done. The top is leather in the center. The claw feet are the heavy type (I'm not a real expert) and not to everyone's taste, and they have a technical name but I don't know it.

So, if you put a painting in a gallery window, it should stop traffic, immediately and from a distance, and if you write a poem, people want to read it over and over.