GUEST: It's been in the house in our family as long as I can remember. My dad was an architect, so we're pretty sure he bought it early on. And I was the oldest, so I think I got first dibs on it. APPRAISER: The chair is really exciting. It was designed by Charles and Ray Eames, a fantastic design duo of the 20th century. The postwar American period has become known as mid-century modern. And this chair more than anything else embodies that entire period. Herman Miller, the company that produced these, probably made hundreds of thousands of these chairs in various combinations. The top is a molded fiberglass shell, and this shell was interchangeable with different bases. And one of the rarest versions of those bases is the rocking chair base. APPRAISER: It was originally conceived as a chair that could be used indoors or outdoors, and it very quickly became used by mothers and expecting mothers. About 20 years after the production started, it became really known as a nursing rocking chair, and Herman Miller stopped selling them and only started giving them away to expecting mothers that were working at Herman Miller.
APPRAISER: Charles Eames was a great designer but he was even a better redesigner. There are some designers who would design something and leave it alone. Charles Eames never left well enough alone. He had to get back in there and change it. I'll show you some of the elements here. These rubber shock mounts were designed to have the seat and the base have a little bit more give when you sat in it. They've kind of turned rock hard over the years. Within a short period of time, those were redesigned smaller because they realized they didn't need so much surface area. The shell itself was originally designed with a rope embedded into the edge, and you can see the rope showing through the fiberglass side. The wood rockers were redesigned to be a little bit beefier to take a little bit more stress. So the next version was a little bit squarer and a little bit taller. But of all the pieces, the most interesting piece that was redesigned is this metal base. The metal base, which was designed in conjunction with the engineering department at UCLA in Los Angeles…
APPRAISER: …is really a design study of doing the most with the least. So it has this wonderful X-frame structure that gives it all of this engineering strength. These particular wires here that cross right in the middle of the chair, when you rock back and you put your ankles underneath and when you rock forward, it can hurt your ankles. I've seen thousands of these, and I've only seen three with this cross that's crossing right here. Because within months, they redesigned it where this cross actually crossed farther up here, next to the stretcher. The chair was designed between 1948 and 1950, and it was released in June of 1950. By October of 1950, they announced that they were now selling it in colors because they were infusing color into the shell. So we know that this chair was produced after October of 1950. Have you ever had any work done to the chair or has the family ever had any work done to the chair? GUEST: There was one of the struts that I think was loose and my brother had contacted a friend who was a welder, but said, "Be very careful."
And then he said after it got done, he was not even sure which one it was. He thought he did a good job. APPRAISER: He did a very good job, but he didn't do a good enough job to fool me. APPRAISER: I can tell you exactly which weld it is. It's actually this weld right here. APPRAISER: You can see tiny little welding solder marks. And you can't see those anywhere else because all of these others were done with a slightly different technique. Also, at some point, these runners have been refinished. This has a dark stain on it that was not factory original. Over the years, the bottom has worn down and you can see that this is the color that these wood elements should be. So because of that one little tiny weld, even though it was done very sensitively, and because of the finish, it puts it in a category of a lower price range. However, it's still pretty impressive for a mass-produced chair. Do you have any idea what it might be worth? GUEST: Maybe $1,000, $1,200? APPRAISER: Now, this is not in great condition, but it is rare.
Even in this condition, I would put the value of this example at $1,500 at auction. APPRAISER: Now, if it had the original finish and it had survived without being rewelded, conservatively, I would say $3,000 to $4,000 for an example that really proves to us that this was essentially a first edition. I just love this example. I just want to hug it. GUEST: Wait, let me get my camera.GG Archives Home» Arts & Entertainment » Motion Pictures » The Mentor July 1921» The Rocker Cure For Nerves THE American rocking chair, out of fashion and favor in the last generation, may be restored to its old place of honor in the home by the recent declaration of an eminent French medical man that rocking quiets the nerves. The rocking chair, comparatively unknown in Europe, has been regarded generally as an American contrivance, but students of furniture are unable to trace its origin. Rocking chairs are said to have been known in India ages ago, where they were regarded as cooler than the ordinary kind.
A ROCKER MADE ABOUT 1750 Rocking chairs were probably made in America before 1750; but there is no historical record to bear this out. It is thought that the first rockers were merely ordinary Windsor chairs cut down and fitted with short boards rounded on the bottom. Twenty or thirty years later these boards were made longer in the rear and shorter in the front to increase safety and comfort. The sign of a genuine old rocking chair is the shortness of the rockers. If there is little light on the rocking chair's origin there are early enough references in literature to the joys of rocking. It is true that most of these refer to the cradle, but the rocking chair is merely a cradle for grown-ups. In fact, there are old American prints showing a combined rocking chair and cradle; mother rocked baby and herself with one motion. Chaucer, the 14th-century English poet, said: "The cradel at hir beddes feet is set to rokken."in the 17th century, translating the Latin poet, Ovid, wrote:
"High in his hall, rocked in the chair of state, The King with his tempestuous council sate." In, the court of Charles I of England, the Court Rocker was an important person. Everyone is familiar with the lullaby, "Rockabye, Baby, on the Tree Top." Dr. Flavius Packer, a New York specialist in the treatment of nervous disorders, who has many rockers at his sanatorium, says: "Some people have scrapped the cradle—but it will come back. The babe of the future will be rocked to sleep again while mother sits in a low rocker and busies her hands with something equivalent with the knitting of yesterday. It may be with holding a book on science, a brush, or with the operation of a soundless typewriter." Fashions in clothes have always governed fashions in chairs. Originally an emblem of authority and used only by leaders, the chair with a back and arms did not become a part of the commoner's household furnishings until a comparatively late date in the world's history. From that time on its design was changed with every new mode in men's and women's clothes.