Ladderback Rocker

[talesofthesevenseas]

Well... I HAD been planning to get a gooseneck rocker, but this little oak ladderback rocker with brass work caught my eye instead. I bought it today.


My cat instantly took it over. It is exactly the height of the air flow from the pellet stove, nice and warm...


Up close on the brass work on the upper back slat. There are nice dark lines behind the brass left in the wood, it looks like it has been there a long time:



Someone had a field day with their new lathe... There are sets of rings between every back slat, on every stretcher  and on the legs too!!


A little something I learned by doing reenactments- I wondered why the old rockers are upright and not reclined like the modern bentwood rockers. When you are wearing a corset, if you recline, you cannot breathe. (I discovered this while driving LOL!)


It looks like this was a "one-off", homemade rocker. There are inconsistencies in it. Especially noticeable are the flat sides on just two of the stretchers, where it looks like the rungs of the stretchers were not quite thick enough to be turned to the proper width. These two flat sides are carefully turned toward the inside and hidden, where they cannot be seen, only felt with a touch, or seen if the rocker is upended. (Note the flat side on the upper rung in the photo below):


Some separation between the back slats and the uprights due to shrinkage in the wood over time:



The patina on this chair looks good, lots of dark grime in the nooks and crannies, lots of wear. There are no sharp edges on it anywhere. Every surface is rounded, but you can feel a lot of variation in the wood with a touch. In the photo below, you can see a lot of the wear to the surfaces.


The turned grooves  on the front stretcher are worn smooth. Note the patina in the old damage to the stretcher:


The rockers are very worn. Raw on the undersides. The chair legs are attached with screws that are inconsistently slotted, looks like homemade screws to me, countersunk into the rockers. They are not quite centered and do not appear to be mass-manufactured screws:


Finally, the rocker was reupholstered in 1951. It still has the old tag from the upholstery shop:


Beneath the cover are heavy criss-crossed straps that make up the seat. It is very comfortable. Were these added in 1951? Was this originally a rush seat rocker?


Lifting up the corner of the 1951 upholstery reveals a floral print. I am going to replace the green and we'll get a better look at the earlier upholstery when the green comes off.


So my questions are- How old is the rocker? I paid $125 for it which I feel was a fair price, but not an exceptional bargain. The rocker just had the "feel" that I was looking for. Lots of personality and history.  



 

[cogar]

I'll start the guessing out, ........ circa 1930's.

[D&b antiques]

I'am seeing, some traces of red paint. indicative of the 1920's & 30's. I do believe the seat is correct. more so then rush rattan etc. not bad for $ 125.00 the main thing is. you liked it.

[Dean Perdue]

Love those nicely toned brass details on the back rest.Very stylish.
The kind of chair I could envision sipping lynchburg lemonades on the porch in summer time.
What could be better than that?

Where do you do reenactments Tales?

Theres a place near me called the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village that always has this kind of stuff going on.

If your ever in the Detroit area you should check it out.
It's like going back in time at the village when you step though the gates and hear that steam locomotive whistling and horse shoes clunking.Great events for the Holiday's too.
One of the nice things Detroit has to offer.

http://www.thehenryford.org/village/index.aspx

http://www.hfmgv.org/museum/index.aspx

[talesofthesevenseas]

Thanks guys! What looks like red paint is actually a wierd reflection off my camera flash. I went back and checked the whole thing over. That's actually one of remnants of what I think is some old varnish. It is definitly not paint, although it sure looked like it in the photo. Check out the crevasses of the rings- we would see paint stuck in there if it had ever been painted. This doesn't look like it was ever refinished. There's a pretty good build-up of black in all the nooks and crannies.The chair is actually darker than it looks in the photos. Again- that's my flash. The seller told me that it was an antiques dealer at the collective where she was trying to sell it a while back that had dated it to the late 1800s for her. But there is no telling about that!

Is there anything about it like the brass that might eliminate an earlier date? Although I suppose that could easily have been added on.

Whatever the age I do like it. It just has a nice character, its suprisingly comfy, and came with a friendly ol' creaky voice. LOL I must have paid the extra bucks for that! Thanks again!

[D&b antiques]

It's possible. it's late 1800's. typically the stretcher's narrow toward the end's when they are turned by hand. could'nt tell for sure.

[talesofthesevenseas]

I just measured them, the stretchers are about 1" diameter in the middle and they taper down to about 5/8" at each end. Not a big taper, just a slight one. But Ialso went and looked at my 1960s manufactured Ethan Allen set that I grew up with and those stretchers also taper. I guess they were trying to reproduce the look?

The nails on the brass are round top decorative type brass colored nails. They look manufactured to me, because they are very round and smooth. Although there is some variation in them I kind of suspect that may be from hammering them in. 

[fancypants]

Looks like a comfy rocker , talesof .


Also looks like the kitty has got the right idea .

[talesofthesevenseas]

Dean,

I loved your comments on the rocker and mint julips! Now I just have to get my husband to wear a white suit, shoes and hat and we'll be all set! Thanks for the links, looks like a you have some very cool historic sites nearby! I'm in the SF Bay area, and we've done all kinds of reenactments up here. I founded a pirate reenactment group called Tales of the Seven Seas that you can see here: http://www.talesofthesevenseas.com I was fortunate for two and a half years to be able to be on the working crew of a privately owned historic tall ship called Royaliste, when she was here in the SF bay. She has since relocated back east.

[Dean Perdue]

Sounds like a great hobby and nice site. I really like the sword cursor.

How old is the Royaliste? Was it an actual pirate ship with some history and ever been lucky enough to see actual pirate artifacts from this era?

Funny how there are still modern day pirates still stealing and doing their thing out there, although it doesn't seem like there's too much of a chance for them these days with radio communication and radar.
Their still trying though as seen in the news about a year ago.

[talesofthesevenseas]

Royaliste is a reproduction of a 1755 gaff-rigged ketch, built in the traditional style by a marine architect named Rossborough. Since wood rots when it sits in the water too long, there are very few ships that actually date to the 18th century. Some like the Victory have been preserved, but still much of the wood simply has to be replaced to keep them afloat. Royaliste has modern conveniences aboard like an indoor head, a galley and a motor. But she is square-rigged with old style sails and rigging, and it was really cool learning to sail in the traditional ways, with belaying pins to tie off the lines and such! We were very, very fortunate to have the opportunity to sail like we did and crewing the ship for two and a half years was truly the adventure of a lifetime. She is a beautiful, special boat and it was an experience so few people get to have these days! Some of the best times of my life!

[KC]

D&B I am prone to think that this is more the 1800's style.   Lower (people were shorter) and just the look & "feel" that it gives me!  (But...what do I know?!?!?!?)  The brasswork is unique and yet it accents the chair so beautifully.....

I can see how it "grabbed" your attention Tales.

[cogar]

Tales, that has the look of a Shaker rocker and has a low enough seat to be an Elder’s rocker or a Nursing rocker. To wit via Google Images:

[talesofthesevenseas]

I also found a lot of similar ones dating 1840 to early 1900's by searching Google images for ladderback and ladder back. There were also plenty of later ones too! It is tough to say on this one, since it seems to be a style that was popular for a long stretch of time. It is low. That was something that the seller had mentioned in the ad, that it was a rocker that people was comfortable, so long as you didn't mind that it was low to the ground.

I did find some interesting things the other night when I reupholstered it. I've got photos at home and will post them tonight. The chair has been through a whole lot more than just a bad upholstery job. It also had a very poorly done repair job that was hidden by the upholstery. When I removed the green fabric, I found that the whole seat frame had been shored up, presumably during the 1951 upholstery job. The work is functional, as it made the chair quite sturdy, but from a restoration standpoint it was extremely shoddy work. Someone took four boards and glued or nailed them into the original frame, then nailed them to each other. The original seat frame looks old and is quite loose, the repair is now doing all of the load bearing. There were also lots of old nail holes from what looks like a couple of reupholsterings on the original frame.

The quilted floral fabric that was under the green fabric does not appear to be old. I left it in place, as it is holding the chair's stuffing in place. I reached in and pulled out a pinch of it to see what it was made of. It is a combination of horsehair and cotton. It looks like the hair comes from the manes and tails of several different horses, as there are dark brown, white and sorrel (red) hairs mixed together in the chair. I used to have horses and it is definitely horsehair all kind of scrunched and wadded up. I would guess that the horsehair stuffing was filled in with cotton during the reupholstery job.

I can't get any idea of how old the burlap strapping stuff is. I suspect could have been added later, as it appears to be in much better shape than the frame of the chair is. I can feel two rails making up the frame, an upper one that has the strapping attached to it, supported by the lower one, which was shored up so badly. The framework under the seat has no traces of varnish on it and it looks like this was always an upholstered seat.

Ultimately at some point I think since I do like this little rocker, I should take it to a good repair shop and see if we can undo the shoddy repair and restore it properly. I did not feel in breaks it the original frame, it just feels like it was loose and a very crude job was done to shore it up.

I'll post the photos tonight. The cats have taken over the rocker and it has become the most popular chair in the house!

[cogar]

 

but from a restoration standpoint it was extremely shoddy work

Maybe it wasn't a restoration project but a renovation project to put a padded seat in it.

Me thinks for a restoration that chair should have a woven "Shaker Tape" or a "splint" seat in it of either hickory, oak or ash.