Step 1: Plan of ActionShow All ItemsIdentifying Old Rocking Chairs Identifying old rocking chairs is not difficult if you take a little time to research the unique characteristics of various styles and eras. Look carefully at the following images. They represent several different decades of rocking chairs. This small chair is a ladies sewing rocker, sometimes called a nursing rocker. The chair is always bigger than child-size but smaller than a full size rocker would be. The lack of arms allowed the lady of the house to easily nurse and infant or sew a shirt while she rocked. These are utilitarian chairs, usually simple and made from pine. Pressed Back The pressed back rocking chair was part of the colonial revival style that lasted from about 1870 to 1920. You can easily identify this style by the raised design of the wood on the back. this style became popular again in the 1980s. Antique Wicker Rocking Chair It is hard to imagine a proper Victorian veranda with out a wicker rocker.
Wicker had been used since Roman times to create furniture and was popular as early as the middle of the 1700s in the United States. Victorians perfected the design, and loved wicker because it allowed them to have all the scroll work and details that their hearts desired. Neoclassical A big help in identifying old rocking chairs is to look at the lines and the way the back is designed. This neoclassical, upholstered rocker is part of the Colonial Revival period from 1870-1920. It has some detail in the back as well as the spools on the legs. You can see some of the simple Arts and Crafts era influence in how the back of the chair is made. Classic Ladderback Rocker The classic ladderback rocker is what many people think of when they think of a country rocking chair. It is easy to recognize with its tall back and slat design. Bentwood Rocker The Bentwood Rocker was introduced in 1856 in Austria by Michael Thonet. There were many variations on this design but it was always made with steamed wood bent into a variety of swirls.
Jenny Lind Children's Rocker Jenny Lind furniture was named after a popular Swedish opera singer in the late 1850s. It is easy to identify by the turned spindles. It is often used for baby and children's furniture. Mission Style Rocking Chair The Mission style is simple, squared off , and squat. It has the feel of solidity and a beauty all its own. Eames Era Rocking Chair Finally, the Eames Era (1950s-1960s) brought a contemporary look to all furniture, including rocking chairs. The chairs were designed to comfortably support the body. They are usually made of molded plastic and have very modern looking forms. It does take some skill to identify these old rocking chairs but by looking at as many as possible, asking questions, and learning about the designs you can be an expert in no time. The following is a partial list of chair types, with internal or external cross-references about most of the chairs. Barrel chair, c. 1465, Raversijde, Belgium An example of Elijah's chair, used at Jewish circumcisions
A reproduction Glastonbury chair in the Bishop's Palace, Wells High chair by Cosco, 1957 "Pop" (2005), A whimsical variation of a patio chair by the American industrial designer Brad AscalonThe American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. MARIETTA, Ga., March 1— Joel Chandler Harris used to rock on a Brumby while he contemplated Br'er Rabbit and his other tales of the South. Jimmy Carter took five Brumbys to the White House. But within a few weeks, a Southern tradition that dates to just after the Civil War will probably come to an end when production stops on a classic bit of Americana - the Brumby Rocker. After resurrecting the century-old rocking chair in 1972, the company that makes the Brumby says it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain enough of the air-dried red oak it needs. Current plans are to stop taking new orders at the end of this month. If production stops, it will end two remarkable stories - one that began when Thomas Brumby made his first jumbo rocker in 1875, and another that started in the late 1960's when Frank and Carole Melson decided to bring the rocker back to life.
''We have been swimming upstream since we resumed production, but over the last five or six years it's been close to impossible to find the right wood,'' said Mrs. Melson, who makes and sells the chairs at her Rocker Shop here. ''I had 75 chairs sitting for four months this year because I couldn't find the 12-inch-wide boards for the runners. It's just getting too hard to keep it going.'' The 4-foot-high, 32-pound rocker, with its cane-stitched seat and back, has long been regarded as a classic piece of American furniture. The High Museum of Art here includes one in its furniture collection, and the Brumby's ample size and delicate balance have made it a fixture on front porches across the country. The first Brumby Jumbo Rocker was made around 1875 by the Brumby Furniture Company here. The company eventually grew to become a major manufacturer, churning out thousands of pieces of furniture daily at its brick factory in downtown Marietta. But one floor was reserved for the Brumby Rocker.
It took five weeks for 12 craftsmen to complete the processes needed to produce each chair. Production on the Brumby stopped in 1942, when World War II made it impossible to obtain enough cane from the Far East for the seat and back. The factory closed two years later. Mrs. Melson got interested in the chair when her first child was born with a severe foot problem, and she borrowed a friend's Brumby to rock the child to sleep. Eventually, she and her husband, Frank, became intrigued with the idea of bringing the Brumby back to life. They got permission from the Brumby family and then spent five years learning about the chair and scouring the South for the original lathes, steam benders and other machinery needed to make it. Before they could finish, Mr. Melson died of a heart attack at the age of 38. But Mrs. Melson was able to round up some of the original Brumby craftsmen, and they helped reconstruct the production process that had been dormant for 30 years. In 1972 the first new Brumby was made.
It used the same red oak, which had been air dried for two years, as the original rocker, and was built by the same Rube Goldberg assortment of one-of-a kind, custom-fitted machines. As with the original, much of the work was done by hand, and Mrs. Melson recruited several of the original craftsmen to come back and produce the new chair. ''It's exactly the same chair,'' said Ernest Atkins, one of the workers at the plant in the 1940's who came back to work for Mrs. Melson. ''It's a good rocker - you can't beat a Brumby rocker,'' said Mr. Atkins, whose father also worked for Brumby Furniture. ''If anybody comes into my house that's the first chair they want to sit down in.'' Some things have changed, however. The chair that cost $25 in 1942 now costs $745, and an order of wood that cost $43 then costs $2,000 now. Since the company announced a month ago that it was stopping production, it has been flooded with orders. These days the shop resembles a pleasant asylum, with customers contendedly rocking to and fro as they test drive the merchandise.