Hi all,
I recently found a lovely little high-backed, ladder back rocker in an antique shop. I was looking for just this type of rocker for a historic camp. It was cheap and I figured it dated to about 1900, but it was in the earlier colonial style. When I asked Jacon4 to take a look at it, it is possible that I may have an earlier rocker than I thought. So let's take a look. Here are the detail pics. Jacon4 and everyone else, what do you think?
I blew off the dust and low and behold there they were clear as day... STRAIGHT saw marks, not circular! (Can I hear an "Oh hell yeah!" here?)
Furniture experts, what in the heck is this? On the underside of one of the stretchers, there are deeply scored marks, not like scars from brooms and vacuums.
Detail of the spindle, I'm seeing a bit of wood shrinkage here, high points on the grain of the wood:
Upper head rest. There are five "rungs" plus the upper head rest. As you can see here, there are some splashes of careless paint. Obviously no one thinks this chair is anything special.
Rocker #1 is clearly attached with an individually slotted iron screw.
Rocker #2 still has it's false wooden plug, covering the iron screw.
Robby, my feline furniture aficionado, examines the rocker and notes inconsistent stretchers...
So folks, what do you think? Jacon4 and Mart?