Fancy lil stool

[chicanedkat]

Bought this stool from a thrift store at my job. The item came from an elderly person who had it for a while. It has this strange pole on the side and made of solid wood. I havent a clue what type of stool it is or if its of value. Can someone at very minimum tell me what it was used for.

[mart]

Pic is a little blurry so can`t see detail on the stool, enlargement is blurry too,, but I would wonder if the stool was part of a parlor set and intended as a place to hang a hat for visitors ??  I have not seen one like it !!

[chicanedkat]

I have a few more pics. My mother and I also thought it was a stool to hold a hat. I will just wait and see if thats what it is before taking it to a shop to check. Thanks for the reply.

[Rauville]

I would guess maybe a "Library Stool", used for reaching the upper shelves of books.
The pole would be used to steady yourself when stepping up?

[mart]

Possibly Rauville,, but all the library stools I have seen had more than one step !!

[chicanedkat]

I googled library stool and one almost like it came up.  However it looked newer and was being sold for $180. Hmm time to do more research.

[KC]

i was going to say Library stool.....have seen quite a few like this!  Popular in southern mansion style!

[mart]

See !!  Learn something new every day !!~   All I have seen were two or three steps and very plain !!

[KC]

They made all kinds - for the more common folks without TALL libraries these single step pieces were more common.  Typically English in style.  You don't see many of these anymore!

Here's one that LOOKS modern but it is actually circa 1790 that is a bench step....I would have never guessed....

[mart]

 Not easy to find those !! 

[chicanedkat]

Been looking all over the web to get a price point.