Grizzly Bear chair
This Grizzly Bear Chair is very odd and, of course, very sad. It was a gift from a hunter named Seth Kinman to US president Andrew Johnson in 1865. I could dig it if it was fake. Even more if it was faux Sasquatch. (Thanks, Vann Hall!)
Previously:
• "Weirdy-beardy frontiersman who gave Lincoln a mule-skull fiddle and turned a bear into a chair"
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That's vile. It seems especially grotesque that it features SIX paws.
Its cool! That grizzly had 6 legs! Of course they probably killed the last 6-legged grizzly to make it. :(
how do i go about getting one of these? probably can't anymore no more 6 legged grizzlys around
Not sad at all-- animals are food, shelter, clothing, building materials, and the like. Would you similarly mourn a leather recliner?
Truly a creative celebration of the Second Amendment.
As much as I love animals, that is a pretty badass chair. Shame it hasn't got the bears head on it though.
Sad if you don't know how to process images like that. In grizzly bear land, the only unnatural death is the natural death. It isn't sad if your not maudlin and overly attracted to what will eat your face off.
Lol #2. Seriously, very nice.
Ugly yes but I'm not sold on the sad bit - It's the handicraft of a 19th century frontiersman. Your superior morality is out of place. Do you have a smaller ecological footprint? Or, a larger one, only disassociated and thus seemingly gentler?
I could dig it if it was fake AND motorised so it could walk around the house just behind me, ready for me to sit down. Paul.
I think animal trophies lose all fascination without the head.
It reminds me of a feature of some of Frank Herbert's stories, the chairdog, a living organism genetically-engineered to be a piece of furniture.
I think Palin's got one of these at her house made out of Russians.
#10 Why would you have it walk behind you when you cold just sit down and let it do the walking.
To make it really fair, the grizzlies could make chairs for their dens out of human hunters.
How's it any different than a leather armchair? OK, maybe a leather armchair with hooves, which would kinda rock now that I think about it.
I hear Rob Zombie is re-making Pee Wee's Playhouse, and he's cast this as Chairry.
The fact that it has no head disturbs me.
Just trampling and seating everything it sees.
@ #15, sometimes they do, with particularly slow hunters.
I love this! I want one made out of polar bears! that looks like some comic book villain's throne in his secret lair.
#11: the head is an optional accessory. it forms the top of the matching ottoman
I'll just sit on Clint Walker, thanks.
Even better if it was a real Sasquatch.
Oooooommf, who wouldn't want to sit on that, Antinous. Dear me. Now, if you ever get the chance to go to San Antonio you gotta see the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. Room after room of chairs made from the horns of every animal known to man. The only thing that bothered me was the sheer volume of horns. It was as if the hunters were taking a bit more than they needed, if you ask me. But all that taxidermied wildlife I find totally fascinating and beautiful.
Maybee this is what they meant with the right to bear arms ???
Too many limbs! This is one-and-a-half bearchair.
Sad? I really don't see how this is sad, it was a very well made gift by a hunter/woodsman, who, from pictures, I'm guessing lived a life with a much lower impact on the environment than most people who try to reduce their impact on the environment. He more than likely ate the bears(bear is yummy), and used parts that normally would have been garbage if they hadn't been made into a piece of art. This is no worst than a leather sofa, and in many ways better, since it uses so much more of the animal, and has so much more effort put into it. Silly vegans.
According to wikipedia:
This was intended to surpass all his previous efforts, and was made from two grizzly bears captured by Seth. The four legs and claws were those of a huge grizzly and the back and sides ornamented with immense claws. The seat was soft and exceedingly comfortable, but the great feature of the chair was that, by touching a cord, the head of the monster grizzly bear with jaws extended, would dart out in front from under the seat, snapping and gnashing its teeth as natural as life.
—Marshall R. Auspach [18]
#28, SeeChao:
It is worse than a leather sofa, because it's made from a wild-caught specimen of an animal that is in decline in much of its range.
It's sad, because it reminds us that bears were once so common in California that they were used for ornaments like this; now they are extinct in that state.
Well, he supposedly shot over 800 bears, and a number of native Americans. I don't think he's really a figure to be admired.
I really would like to see the chair in the flesh, though...
Ha, I like things like this. They're a reminder of a era that's past. I remember listening to a podcast where someone had a rug in their attic that was made of many, many, many platypuses (platypi, platypuseses?). I think it's in a museum in Canberra (Australia) now.
I like wondering what we consider normal now will be considered ridiculous in the future.