Now that was a something different. That was my first thought after my meandering through antique furniture at an auction house led me to a very unusual glass-topped table and matching high-back chair.
They looked like two life-size wooden crossword puzzles.
Their frames were crutches, medical equipment that is temporary for some of us and permanent for many others. The table had a glass top from which you could see a labyrinth of unstained wood. I assumed it was a dining room set and looked around for more chairs. I found none, but did see tucked away in a corner a floor lamp with a red Christmas tree bulb jutting from its top.
With only one chair and a lamp, I guessed secondly that this must be office furniture. The table had a small recess for pushing the chair underneath it. The chair had a thin padded black leather seat but no cushion on its back. It appeared to be too uncomfortable for sitting, but the two pieces as a set sure did look good empty.
I didn’t turn any of the furniture over as I usually do to find a manufacturer’s name. I was too afraid of damaging them. Each was so meticulously assembled that I speculated they were hand-crafted rather than machine-made.
So I Googled to see if I could find any more furniture like it. And I did. DIY’ers had configured them into shelving, stair rail, garden trellis, stool and political art. One site offered 10 ways to recycle crutches into other functional pieces.
A New York artist used them to make art, creating a Crutch Table, which uses crutches in the same way as the auction chair but with a simpler design. His site also included a Crutch Bar.
Repurposed crutches are not a new phenom. That creative genius and surrealistic artist Salvador Dali, well-known for his red Mae West Lips Sofa and his Lobster Telephone, also sketched a Lamp with Drawers and Floor Lamp with Crutches in the 1930s. The latter two were later manufactured after his death.
Crutches were a powerful symbol to him and figured in many of his works. They were symbols of support. The ones used in his lamps were more stylized, resembling wishbones more than crutches.
The furniture at auction seemed to be nothing more than functional, but pleasant. What do you think of it?
