1930's Shoe Shine Lobby Bench Footstool-USA

This Art Deco piece of history is made of cast iron and stands approx 16" tall and has a 8.5" rest plate.
RUSTIC PATINA!!!

Weighs 3.25 lbs and has 4 mounting holes to attach to solid structures for sturdiness.
Made for public shoe shine venues that were popular in America from the early 1900's to peaking throughout the 1930's and slowly declining into a forgotten guilty pleasure in the late 1950's.

A footstool (foot stool, footrest, foot rest) is a piece of furniture or a support used to elevate the feet. There are two main types of footstool, which can be loosely categorized into those designed for comfort and those designed for function.
Comfort:
This type of footstool is used to provide comfort to a person seated, for example, in a chair or sofa. It is typically a short, wide, four-legged stool. The top is upholstered and padded in a fabric or animal hide, such as leather. This type of footstool is also a type of ottoman. It allows the seated person to rest their feet upon it, supporting the legs at a mostly horizontal level, thus giving rise to the alternate term footrest. High quality footstools are height–adjustable.
This type of footstool supports a person's (usually a child's) feet that do not reach the floor when seated. The footstool is placed under the feet of a sitting person so that the person's feet may rest comfortably on it. An example is the type of piano footstool used in conjunction with a piano bench. It is also used to make the blood circulation of the body flow more freely when sitting down.
A barber chair and a shoeshiner have foot rests. An automobile typically has a "dummy pedal" that acts as a foot rest to discourage "riding the clutch" or "riding the brake". A foot peg is another type of foot rest usually on BMX bicycles, motorcycles, the Ford N-Series tractor, some kayaks, the Impossible wheel, and other transportation devices.
Shoeshiner or boot polisher is an occupation in which a person cleans and buffs shoes and then applies a waxy paste to give a shiny appearance and a protective coating. They are often known as shoeshine boys because the job was traditionally done by a male child. Other synonyms are bootblack and shoeblack. While the role is denigrated in much of Western civilization, shining shoes is an important source of income for many children and families throughout the world. Some shoeshiners offer extra services, such as shoe repairs and general tailoring. Some well-known people started their working life as shoeshiners, including singers and presidents.

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Chad & Jennifer Johnston (August 2024)