Featured Rocking chair

Hi everybody, do u know what kind of chair this might be? Thank you

 

About 1890s or so. Late Victorian.

 

via Etsy:


Larkin Furniture Spindle Rocker Rare Morris Style Rocker Huge Price Reduction/PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR
[...]This is a beautiful, rare Larkin Spindle Rocker. It was made in the USA by the Larkin Soap Co. in the 1920's and was not for sale but used as a give away item for the General Stores that sold the most soap. The arms are made out of veneer wood and the back and seat are made out of a plywood type of wood, but the spindles are made out of solid wood. Typically, these chairs were thought to not be very well made, since they were largely given away for free, or at a very low cost with the purchase of Larkin's soap, but this one has proven that theory wrong. It is very strong, and I find it amazingly comfortable!
....NEW INFO ADDED 9/23/14: Per another seller who has the same chair, it seems that this chair's history is even more interesting! "...it's very rare. You chair is a 1904 McKinley no. 75. It is more than likely a memorial piece to the passing of the president in 1901."

 

I've seen this chair before and there are a couple of stories on the internet about them.
One is that it was given to Larkin soap dealers as a premium for selling soap, google "Larkin spindle rocking chair".
The other has something to do with memorializing McKinley and is called the "1904 McKinley no. 75.
I don't know if either are true.

 

Sniped!

 

Interesting. Rather a radical design, especially the spindles. The connection between Larkin and this unusual mission/craftsman-influenced rocker may be none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. He designed the Larkin Building in Buffalo, NY, now sadly demolished. Wright and Larkin were strongly connected.

 

Am digging a little deeper in to the idea that this is a memorial rocker to the McKinley assassination. Found this ad with the rocker in it from 1904.



https://www.terapeak.com/worth/1904-larkin-soap-co-ad-mckinley-rocker/161156004212/

My feeling is that this is where the 1904 date comes from that is oft-repeated. Chances are, the rocker existed before this ad came out. It would have been somewhat old-fashioned by 1904 but certainly still in production. Larkin was not necessarily known for their cutting edge design. I can find no association to president McKinley other than the coincidence of name. I welcome any further research than can definitively make a connection.

 

This bears no resemblance to the work that Wright did for Larkin and he had no association with their furniture production. I really don't see any mission or craftsman influence in this design. Perhaps some early prairie school influence, more along the lines of H. H. Richardson.

 

Nice find of the catalog page @verybrad

I was poking around to find more info about John Larkin, saving links and just taking notes, so no complete sentences in the glob of stuff I'm gonna copy and paste below, if anyone wants to research further. I'll be off-line starting today for don't know how long. Don't have time to do more.

The history of John Larkin and the huge business and associations with famous people turns out to be very interesting.
---
The Larkin Company, also known as the Larkin Soap Company, was a company founded in 1875 in Buffalo, New York as a small soap factory. It grew tremendously throughout the late 1800s and into the first quarter of the 1900s with an approach called "The Larkin Idea" that transformed the company into a mail-order conglomerate that employed 4,000 people and had annual sales of $28.6 million (equivalent to $341,917,000 in 2016) in 1920. The company's success allowed them to hire Frank Lloyd Wright to design the iconic Larkin Administration Building which stood as a symbol of Larkin prosperity until the company's demise in the 1940s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larkin_Company

Once Given Away With Soap, Larkin Furniture Now Quite Valuable
October 12, 1986 | By Anita Gold
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-10-12/news/8603170273_1_collector-books-primitives-soap

John Larkin - The Larkin Company Sweet Home Soap laundry soap- founder of Buffalo Pottery Co. in 190? to manufacture premium give-aways for his soap company - Brother-in-Law (wife's brother) of Larkin was Elbert Hubbard, founder of The Roycrofters colony - Larkin founded mass production furniture factory (late 1880s? verify date)
Furniture Detective: The story behind the Larkin desk
By: Fred Taylor | September 21, 2010
http://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/furniture_detective_larkin_desk/

The chair from Etsy: $135.00 + Shipping Sold on: May 30, 2015
http://www.flippertools.com/tools/e...rniture-spindle-rocker?show_sold_out_detail=1

 

Wright designed furniture for the Larkin Building and houses for Larkin executives. If his office furniture for Larkin did not resemble this rocker, it doesn’t mean that his aesthetic did not influence its design.


H.H. Richardson was best known for his personal adaptation of the Romanesque. The J.J. Glessner House in Chicago from the mid-1880s was known for disciplining the picturesque of Richardson’s earlier designs, but the furniture was European arts and crafts and aesthetic. Richardson influenced Wright and Sullivan early on, and their takes on Arts and Crafts in large part came through him, although he cannot be said to be a Prairie school architect by any means. The extended spindles/slats that give this rocker its panache can be found not only in Wright’s turn-of-the-20th century furniture, but in such places at the stairway balustrade of Sullivan and Wright’s Charnley House in Chicago from the 1890s.


If you add this to Gustav Stickley’s craftsman aesthetic, which shared much with Wright’s own philosophy including a respect for materials and plain surfaces as a reaction against Victorian exuberance, then the choices in the design of this rocker become more apparent.

 

I think this makes him at the forefront of the movement, though it evolved beyond his aesthetic. Perhaps we are just mincing words and have a difference of opinion as to what prairie school actually means. Note that I did qualify what I said with early prairie school. I think most would agree that Glessner house is early prairie school as are the very early works of Wright in collaboration with Sullivan. Other architects that could be considered for inclusion are George Washington Maher and George Grant Elmslie. Their works bear little resemblance to what the prairie school would become under Wright, yet think they have to be included.

I think the Larkin chair shows greater resemblance to this Richardson Glessner house chair than anything that Wright (or Stickley) produced in later years.

 

Agree to disagree.

Glessner continued Richardson's evolution of giving discipline to the picturesque that began years earlier with his libraries in Massachusetts and arguable reached its apotheosis in the Marshall Fields Warehouse. Glessner may contain the seeds of Prairie, but it is not Prairie - early or otherwise - nor is Richardson a Prairie architect.

Agree about Elmslie, Maher, Mahoney et. al.

In any case, I maintain that the rocker shows far more arts and crafts influence than anything else; the 1890s - and especially the 1880s - are too early.

 

I'm adding the following comment only because (sometimes) word/phrase usage of English and "tone" of message can point to a certain time period.

I find the wording (parts which can be read) on the (torn) label to be interesting in the way it is worded:

". . . occasion to write us about it, . . . [re?]member without fail. Do not cause delay to inquiry by neglecting this."

That company message clearly puts the onus on the buyer(s)/owner(s) of the chair(s) to timely communicate any concerns about the chair(s).

 

I have one of these in great shape. The only real blemish is small sliver of veneer is missing from the left arm. Any idea what the worth is if one of these were in this condition?

 

Value will depend on where selling and how. As noted above by Lauragarnet, this one sold for $130.00 on Etsy.

http://www.flippertools.com/tools/e...rniture-spindle-rocker?show_sold_out_detail=1

I know that here in the Midwest, I would be very happy with a price like that at retail. Chances are, I would need to expect under $100.00. Other places might do better (or worse).

 

I have a similar rocker that was my great grandfather’s. My grandmother thought he may have gotten it sometime around 1915-1920. It is slightly different than the one pictured; no cut outs on the back and an embellishment on the front of the seat. Label is gone. If anyone have any information...I would appreciate it, thanks!

Spindle Rocking Chair by Jkharwood77 posted Dec 29, 2019 at 12:51 AM

 

you should start your own thread so folks that have already looked here ....will then look at yours...
nice chair BTW..

 

Thanks, I started a new thread.

 

I doubt you will get this since it's been so long ago. But I have been searching for 7 years tirelessly for this exact rocker down to the color an spindles an this is the first time I have found one online on all platforms. I had the exact same one. It had been in my family 3 generations. back in 2013 my mother's house was robbed an it was taken an now she has passed . she was so heartbroken over it. An since, I been searching for one. If you still have it, name your price. I will pay any price for it, please. I pray u get this reply.

 

@Crafters , unfortunately the original poster hasn't been back since October 2, 2017. It isn't known whether he/she will ever return. Also, they didn't indicate they would sell it. I hope you find one. You could put a message into the Wanted forum in the bottom section of the Antiquers site, and to indicate what it looks like you can link to this thread. The reason I suggest that is that this thread is likely to be re-buried by new threads in the Furniture forum. The Wanted forum is much less busy.