Most likely 1890 to 1920 or so....
Lots of things had feet like that...dining tables stools and most often side tables.
During the hey day of old marble collecting, people fried the glass out of the claw.
I think what you have is probably not good for much but scrap.
Linda C

So Linda, you think they had glass balls? I'm wondering if it would have been wood, that cracked or something.
I would imagine them having been used on a dresser, obviously with wood legs inserted in the tops.

They may or may not be "worth" anything but they sure are cool. What metal they are might become evident if you could get them blasted, probably with walnut shells. And the trick would be to find a craftsperson who wanted to use them on something they built. I guess the mouth would have to be bent open to insert a new ball of some sort. You could sure have some fun with them.

KarinL

I don't think there is a doubt that they had glass balls in the claw. I have never seen anything else on a metal claw.

Do they hold a magnet? They could be brass or iron....can't think of anything else...maybe bronze.

Thanks so much for everyone's help. There were some older Claw type feet that had a wood ball or dome and no glass, I did see some online, but they were claws. Can't find anything with the open mouth and ball. A magnet does not stick to it. The material seems like it might be softer than brass, there are a few knicks in it and some of the teeth are very bent leading me to believe it might be copper??? But I am just guessing at this point.

I wish they were mine! Somehow, I'd use them with house plants, peeking out or grabbing hold of a stem or maybe they could be used as planter feet.

Around Halloween you can get those tiny pumpkins...you know where they go! Those are such nice scary feet!

I think these came in two sizes; the larger was used on parlor/center tables, the smaller on piano/organ stools.
Casey

I did read a description online about an old piano stool that had open mouth griffen feet however, the picture was no longer posted so I could not see if they were the same thing.

Maybe they are not feet....check out the pic!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1379129}}

Sorry to be adding to this so late but these feet were designed by Emile Garet for the Merklen Brothers Furniture company in New York City. All of there furniture had metal claw with wooden balls. The pic of the table that boston pat put on here is a Merklen Brothers Table.

A wild guess: Feet for a pump organ stool. The top of the stool was round and the height was adjusted by screwing the up or down.