Thanks for all the nice comments, guys. It's the coolest thing I've brought home in a long time. The summer is young, but it will be hard for me to beat this this year.
There's probably some gold and silver dust in the cracks and crevices of that thing. I used to make silver jewelry, many many years ago, and people who did it full time always placed their benches on a carpet. After 10 or 15 years of cutting silver and gold they'd send the carpet to a smelter to recover the precious metals. True.
I can believe it. From what I have been able to gather from some on-line research, that's the purpose of the lower drawer. I also read they made the drawers with tin bottoms so they could hear a "clink" if something precious fell off the bench.
The two really go together.
'Zackly!
Lug I'm seeing a gap above the bottom drawer? do you think its missing one? Can you please show more details? Drawer construction? Details of the sides and back? What are the dimensions? Is there room for your knees under it?
It's not missing any drawers. I found a few examples on-line and they look exactly like this, with one exception I'll go into a little more when I post more photos. The lower drawer tapers from 4-1/2" to 2" from front to back. From the back it looks like two drawers. From the front, the taper makes it look like a gap. Much more to follow. I just got back from the Flea Market.
Very nice!
I would use it as a desk for a home computer.
You're reading my mind, Bogdan.
My house is a Shore Victorian, built in 1893. When I first reported the find on the Garage Sale thread, I said I was going to put it in a corner between two windows in the master bedroom, and use it for some peace and quiet laptop time, which can be hard to come by in my house - five kids, three still at home. The commander-in-chief-of-the-house loves old furniture, but she's not too keen on the vise, despite it reflecting a little of my personality. So now I'm thinking the landing just outside the master bedroom, which is really the original maid's quarters, with wooden stairs doing three left turns down to the kitchen at the back of the house. Because this vise ain't never coming off this workbench as long as I am alive.
