Cotton Sorting Table ????

[BrentwoodTN]

Does anyone know anything about this table?  We were told it was a Cotton Sorting Table, from Mississippi and dated to around the turn of the 20th century.  We would like to know more about it or if it is something other than that.  Any input would be appreciated.[

[KC]

Can you give a little more background and a few more pics!  Haven't seen one exactly like this.....

[BrentwoodTN]

This is the only picture I have of it.  It is currently in storage, because we are building a new house.  As far as more information, what I have in my first post is all I have.  Please share any more information you may have.

[cogar]

I can't believe it is/was a Cotton Sorting Table because it sure wouldn't hold very many "cotton balls" for to be sorting.

[BrentwoodTN]

I found a couple other pictures of it.  It shows the open back with shelves and the other shows the numbering down on the lower corner of the front. 

Also, the size is approximately 4'-0" x 8'-0".

[talesofthesevenseas]

Well, it does look like some type of production/manufacturing table for two people (code numbers 150 and 155) to stand at and do their job. The standing platform looks worn in two spots, so do the edges of the tray where two people would lean against them. That platform also tells me that whatever was being produced was all over the floor. The platform would allow a sweeper to go by them without interrupting production. There are a lot of things about it that do seem consistent with it being for some type of production. That's my take on it.

[cogar]

I thought it might be that large when I seen the first picture. The picture of the front and its dimensions confirmed my suspicions.

So, my guess is it came out of an old store and was used for displaying/cutting “yard goods” (material). The bolts of material would be stored on the shelves and a customer would make their choice, lay the bolt up on the table and the clerk would measure it out and cut it off. The lip around the table top would keep the bolt from rolling off onto the floor.

[BrentwoodTN]

Thanks for both of your inputs...Any others?

[regularjoe2]

Tossing in my 2 cents here ...

Anyone who has seen the milling process for cotton knows/is impressed  by that fact that it's done in large quantities .

Although the initial gin mills from Eli Whitney and H. Ogden Holmes were rather small , this changed quickly for the American-grown variety of cotton .

We're talkin' BIG herkin equipment ... no small carding or sorting tables needed ....lots of Iron & dangerous drive-belts all over the place in Industrial Revolution times .

Raw cotton really wasn't 'sorted' much , just dumped onto floors & into hoppers & bins .

After the cotton was carded , dyed or spun ... inspection & sorting would be done for these processes .

Although I've seen antique 'carding tables' , they all were simply flat .
The lack of serious 'wear-patterns' on your table leads me to speculate that it was used for fairly soft mat'ls , light enough to cause little wear on the wood ... including , perhaps , a mail sorting table .

I don't know what your item really is , but it may indeed be from the textile industry ... perhaps a spooled-fiber dye inspection bench , etc .

[KC]

I think cogar hit it right on!!!  That is what I was going to put.....took the words right out of my fingers cogar!!!!!

The old stores didn't have the wide cutting tables you see at the large chain stores these days.  Store space was very limited.

[BrentwoodTN]

Thanks everyone.  That makes sense that it could be from an old store, but the only part that throws me for a loop about it being in a store is the numbers at the bottom.  Oh well, that is part of collecting....Some things are just always going to be a mystery.