Be the first to guess what the pictured item is by leaving a comment below. If you have your own whatsit, our editors can include it in a future post. Please send an email to editor@kovels.com and attach a clear picture, the size and any markings. Hopefully, we will be able to identify it for our readers!
The pictured item is 34 inches high by 86 1/2 long by 26 inches deep.
Note: For those of you who signed up to get notified of each response (by checking the “Notify me of follow-up comments” box in the “Add Comments” section) and find it’s generating too much email, you can unsubscribe to the “Whatsitwednesday” comments by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in the “Whatsitwednesday” email you receive.
This is an oyster shucking table with a 2-inch thick marble top and ribbed column legs with half ball feet, Belgium, 19th century. Thanks for participating!
I believe it’s a pastry table.
I’m thinking it’s a candy making table. The fudge shops on Mackinac Island, Michigan have similar tables with the marble top.
It apparently has a marble top, not necessarily needed for a casket stand though it does seem to be an appropriate size, albeit a bit narrow. I second suggestions for a candy table; it’s at a good (counter) height for a standing worker. I would think an oyster shucking table would have some slope or channel for drainage. It might also be a bread makers table, very sturdy for punching down and kneading dough after flouring the table.
Bread proofing box
Too ornate for shucking oysters, and made of the wrong wood for a Turkish Bath Bench.
FYI, the oyster table and Turkish Bath Bench answers were not visible and thus not part of my reasoning at the time I made my deductions.
I like to choose from current and existing answers, so , let’s begin :
It is too ornate to be a simple candy making table, whether it be fudge, caramel, or salt water taffy.
It is the wrong shape and size to be a Kitchen Island, even a Hawaiian Kitchen Island, since most Kitchen Islands are square and have more open space beneath.
Ergo, that leaves a Casket Stand, which, the dimensions seem to fit : 2 ft, 10 in high (high enough to put the open top of the casket within easy view) by 7 ft, 2 1/2 in long (long enough for any casket to fit on it) by 2 ft 2 in deep(wide) (about as wide as the bottom of a casket). In most funeral home settings, the casket is supported by some type of table or stand, that we normally don’t see because it is invariably covered or draped with a cloth of some type and flowers.
So there we have it, through deductive reasoning, my answer is a Casket Stand.
Looks like a table used to shuck oysters long ago!
It’s a bench from a Turkish Bath
With the marble top, I think it is a candy making table for fudge etc.
Casket stand?
Marble top, cutting table, kitchen island.
A candy table for making fudge