Decorative flourish for the most part. A lot of that old stuff was crafted by hand rather than a machine so it tends not to be designed for mass production.
A foot like this is a blend of decorative and functional, imo.
You end up with more surface area than if you had just gone with a straight column, and that helps with stability, slightly lessens the pressure.
Many modern tables or desks have… much less ornate footpad type structures, if the thing itself is quite heavy, or intended to hold a decent amount of weight.
Of course… I have no way of knowing if this old… desk? table? whatever it is, was intentionally designed with that in mind, but the function is still there, at least to some degree.
The metal ones were quite often mass produced by casting, like in claw-foot bathtubs. Probably in imitation of older artisanal pieces, which were already antiques in, say, 1910.
Casting I would say is kind of a separate deal. You can still find somewhat ornate cast things today, although more often it’s injection molded plastic coated in paint.
You could do this kind of thing with wood in a CNC machine, but more often it’s just some straight cut or moulded particle board stuff with no life in it.
Decorative flourish for the most part. A lot of that old stuff was crafted by hand rather than a machine so it tends not to be designed for mass production.
A foot like this is a blend of decorative and functional, imo.
You end up with more surface area than if you had just gone with a straight column, and that helps with stability, slightly lessens the pressure.
Many modern tables or desks have… much less ornate footpad type structures, if the thing itself is quite heavy, or intended to hold a decent amount of weight.
Of course… I have no way of knowing if this old… desk? table? whatever it is, was intentionally designed with that in mind, but the function is still there, at least to some degree.
The metal ones were quite often mass produced by casting, like in claw-foot bathtubs. Probably in imitation of older artisanal pieces, which were already antiques in, say, 1910.
Casting I would say is kind of a separate deal. You can still find somewhat ornate cast things today, although more often it’s injection molded plastic coated in paint.
You could do this kind of thing with wood in a CNC machine, but more often it’s just some straight cut or moulded particle board stuff with no life in it.