Unusual Stamp on N&S Boston Rocker

I bought this Nichols and Stone rocking chair today and realized that the stamp on the bottom is unusual compared to the ones I find online. I'm pretty certain it's a Boston Rocker and that someone restained it fairly recently. I have no other information as the person I bought it from, bought it at a garage sale a few years ago knowing it was worth a pretty penny, but never did anything with it. It rocks wonderfully, only a little squeaky from the top needing to be glued back down onto the spindles again.

I've really only seen one or two other rockers with this stamp online and no one was really able to identify it 100%.

How old do you think it is? Date range? Why the different stamp? Is it for sure a Boston Rocker? I'm curious what everyone here thinks! Thanks!

 

thats their logo from the 30s.
they were funny people. here is one version where they did not even spell it correctly

 

They didn't spell their own name correctly? That IS funny.

1930s seems right.

 

How funny about the misspelling! Thanks for the info! 1930s then, awesome! Their furniture really is well built!

 

I grew up with a rocker that is identical to the one in your pic (I don't have it anymore so can't check for the marking underneath). I think yours is newer than the 1930's. My mom's was bought new in the late 1960's, and the finish looked like yours so I believe your's has its original finish.

p.s. You call yours a Boston Rocker, and that doesn't match correctly with the name used to refer to the antique ones. Here's a link with a properly named antique Boston Rocker: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/boston-rocker-age-and-if-worth-repairing.14477/

Yours is a 20th century adaptation of a generic windsor rocking chair - actually more closely based on what the antique trade calls a Salem Rocker: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/867831_265-antique-salem-rocker
(note the main difference is the seat).

 

[QUOTE="I think yours is newer than the 1930's. My mom's was bought new in the late 1960's, and the finish looked like yours so I believe your's has its original finish.[/QUOTE]

I thought exactly as you did until I started noticing all the new ones I see online have a different (the newer) stamp on it. So now I'm not so confident that is true.

For example:
https://www.chairish.com/product/16...ial-style-solid-hard-rock-maple-rocking-chair

https://www.ebth.com/items/954961-vintage-nichols-stone-boston-rocker-wood-rocking-chair

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nichols-Stone-Co-Antique-Solid-Wood-Rocking-Chair-Maple-/252888177189

See what I mean? Also, the only reason I suspect newer staining is because under the seat someone appeared to have brushed on stain counter to the grain and didn't wipe it off very well, so you can see color streaks cross grain. Seemed like an amateur mistake on a DIY restore, but I could be wrong about that.

 

Just for reference, these are the only chairs I have found online with the same stamp...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nichols-Stone-Co-Antique-Solid-Wood-Rocking-Chair-Maple-/252888177189

https://www.instappraisal.com/appraisal/rare-nichols-and-stone-antique-chairs

 

Ooo, good call on the catalogs. I did contact them at that website. They replied quickly with directions to send pictures. I haven't heard back from them yet (it's been like 3 days). I'll update what I hear from them if I do.

 

I heard back from "Nichols and Stone"'s historian yesterday!

I quote the important parts of the letter here...


"You have a #73-6 Boston Rocker. In 1800, what could be called the first prototypes of what would ultimately be known as a Boston rocker appear. Forty years later there were hundreds of variations of Boston style rockers made by a wide range of makers.

The Nichols & Stone sack back chair shop mark was burned into each piece to verify authenticity. From 1915-mid-1930's the shop mark was a burned in NS imposed over a hoop back chair silhouette.

This particular rocker does not appear in the 1930 catalog indicating it was not introduced until shortly afterward in the mid-1930's.

Here is a page out of the 1960 catalog."


The part about the shop mark is exciting, "NS imposed over a hoop back chair silhouette", now I see that's exactly what it looks like. It's the first I've read anything about it.

They don't do appraisals, so I didn't receive a monetary value for it. I don't plan on selling it so that doesn't bother me. I bought this rocker purely because I like the simple design and I wanted a classic rocking chair for my home at a good price (bought it for $30). We live in South Carolina (in a historical town) and finding old, used rocking chairs is pretty easy. After I bought it and I realized that it was a little more special than I originally thought, I just had to figure it out! Thanks for helping out everyone!

 

How did you contact the Nichols and Stone Historian? I have a rocker with the same logo but with a lip on the bottom seat in the front.

 

Nice to be vindicated. Thanks for following up!!