5-slat rocking armchair

1775-1840

Measurements

47-3/4 in x 23-3/8 in x 30-3/4 in

Materials

Maple (turned parts and slats), tulip poplar (rockers), rush (seat)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.564

Condition Notes

The back end of the right rocker is repaired with a new piece of wood where it likely split along the grain.  The chair has been stripped of all paint and refinished in a clear coating.  The turned posts show some worm damage, now inactive.

Provenance

Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. J. Newberry Reynolds to The David Wilson Mansion, Inc., in 1942.

Comments

This 5-slat armchair has attractive ovoid finials, double undercut arms, and a decoratively turned ball-and-ring front stretcher.  The armchair appears to have been converted to a rocking chair at an early date by addition of the shaped rockers.  Chairs made as rockers initially often did not have turned feet in front—work that is less visible and which weakens the leg where the slot was cut for the rockers. Wooden pegs hold the rockers in place.