Posted 6 years ago
Playdoh
(1 item)
Child’s rocker. 28” tall. No trace of paint or varnish. This chair is solid except for a broken rocker. Can anyone tell me a possible age and/or other information on this style of chair? It’s the only one I’ve found with the heavy construction.
My business associate owned a furniture store for over 35 years, and still has a ton of new old stock. Much of what he has are these heavy, solidly-built children's rockers. Some are bare, some are painted, and some are stained. These were made by a multitude of factories over the decades, and the design / construction didn't really vary that much. I'm not an expert in this area, but I think you'd have a daunting task in trying to date this or identify its maker.
I would say this chair has seen a major rework. The skids and stretchers appear to have been replaced and pinned with 4 penny finish nails or similar and the nails were never set or filled. I can't imagine nails being used where they are in this chair. The reason being, wood and metal expand and contract at different rates under different conditions. Nails in a tenon will cause it to split. They would have used either a wooden pin or glue or both but not a nail. The turnings are totally flawed when compared so that would make me think it was an older piece when original and probably made in a small shop as opposed to being mass produced. Small shops didn't have the jigs to turn things uniformly therefore you get flaws. Putting a date to it is next to impossible but the imperfections in the turnings would suggest to me pre WWII. The rework appears to have been done by a home handyman at some point.