Featured Smallish, Armless Rocking Chair Info

Actually, after studying the chair the whole back is on a slant, the centre panel is not straight, the spindles on each end are a slightly different length, the curved pieces at the sides are not properly attached one is fixed to the top of the seat, the other attached to the side, very poorly done. .. Joy.

 

It's a dining chair sized back poorly attached to a childs chair .. that's what it is ... Joy.

 

That would certainly explain why I wasn’t able to find much of anything similar online.
I can’t get much of a handle on any length or symmetry with the angle that the photo was taken but a tape measure will soon tell.

 

It might also be helpful to see the underside, showing where the back attaches to the seat.

 

I have my grandmother's rocking/nursing chair. I just measured it. The seat is exactly 14-1/2" from the seat to the floor (measured with a wooden yardstick).

We're so used to seeing "tall" people these days we forget that in the early 1900s some people (perhaps especially women) were "small" in height and weight.

I am not saying that your chair is an early 1900 chair. I am saying that I have an early 1900 chair that measures as I have said above and I know who used it and when she was born and how "tiny" she was.

 

Child-sized ??? ... Joy.

 

I have never seen or know of an adult that could comfortably sit in a chair only 14" high. I am 76yrs old and my grandparents and great grandparents were of average size .. and all of the elderly people and other adults I saw were too big to sit in that chair and nurse a baby, or even relax unless they were of course "little people " It's a childs chair. ... Joy.

 

Both of my grandmothers were both between 1895-1905 and neither were 5' tall. One grandfather often cut down chairs so his wife could sit comfortably with her feet on the floor and laughed about having a Dora size chair.
Patd

 

Well we can gather here forever as various folks speak up about their diminutive grandparents, my recollections are of mainly of average height people in Great Britain, I was born in 1942, Father in 1912, grandmother 1880's, great grandmother 1800's ... they all lived into their nineties . On my mothers side they didn't fair so well. I still say that it is a childs chair with a dining room back attached to it. ... Joy.

 

"I still say that it is a childs chair with a dining room back attached to it. ... Joy."

I've got a real child's rocker, which I posted at some point in the distant past. I agree. Child's rocker with another chair's back attached.

 

I've heard them described as that also. Nice figuring on the quarter-sawn oak! Those brackets that tie the back to the seat are called hip rests. They were often mass manufactured, you can buy replacements even now from the restoration supplies catalogs... oh, and eBay, of course!

 

Well, I doubt that those "hip rests" would be big enough to rest any womans hips on !! More like just supports to strengthen the attachment to the seat. Give me a big cozy armchair any time and if anyone happens to be sitting in it they can move their arse off while I nurse the babbie. Mind you .. I haven't nursed a babbie in 65 years .. Joy.

 

Nevertheless, if you need to find replacements, that is the search term you need. https://www.vandykes.com/oak-hip-rest/p/205633/

 

Just a thought. Women a decade ago were much shorter than most of us today, particularly if one was Irish. I'm average height, but prefer shorter height chairs. The one that I am sitting on right now is 17" from the floor, too high for me.

 

I’m headed to where the chair lives in a little while. Detailed photos and measurements should resolve this for those who are still wondering. My first impression was that it looked pretty homogeneous with a bit of old repair work, but an eye for furniture I have not.
Luckily I have all of you! Stay tuned.

 

We're all entitled to our opinion.

Have a look at Lady's parlor chairs. Scroll down, you will notice they sit very low to the floor.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lady's+parlor+chair&FORM=HDRSC2

Some Lady's rocker's whether for sewing or nursing were made the same way.
Many of these sit low to the ground as well.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...-23&sk=&cvid=22A973F6AA8C4BCB8FB6D5CF43A10A12

The OP's rocker is turn of the century American Oak.
Looks to have had some repair done.

 

Yes, we are all entitled to our own opinions and I stated mine, as others have stated theirs ... Joy.

 

Well, here’s some more photos. It looks like the seat split at some point near the center, the piece at the back of the base has been pinned and there’s a slight warp to the whole thing. It’s been through some stuff...that I can tell. The two horizontal support pieces under the seat must’ve been added later I’m pretty sure.
Meanwhile I found another small rocking chair so round two.