Can anyone identify this?

Nonsense! No-one in their right mind would convert a rocking chair to a commode.

 

You're welcome to call Kovel's on it, @blooey

 

I tend not to believe EVERYTHING I read on the internet, dearie.

 

@lizjewel
I have liked your responses to many things you have answered.
However, I have to respectfully disagree with you about a rocking chair being a potty chair.

First response in the link you posted also disagrees with the answer.
I have an EXACT duplicate to the one pictured. It was never a potty chair. It had the pressed paper seat.

 

And if you read the link posted, it was debunked as being a potty chair.

 

Just because someone identified it or not as a potty chair doesn't diminish its antique worth I think. And just because someone debunked it in a previous thread doesn't mean they were right; it's only an opinion. Kovel's is a pretty respectable ID source. I'd believe them before any debunker here.

I'd welcome theories and opinions as why someone would put pressed cardboard to cover a hole on an otherwise respectable rocker if it weren't to cover it so that the chair would be usable again (lacking any potty that may once have been there).

Also why a fine rocker would have a big round hole in it IF it weren't meant to accommodate a potty; think of any other reason for this hole?

 

Is this chair as narrow as it looks in the pics, or is that a distortion? Round caned bottom chairs are not unusual. You can tell if this is the original seat material by looking for regularly spaced holes drilled around the seat edge to accommodate the weaving, or a channel groove to stretch machine caning into. Your chair looks to have been re-caned, with a less-than elegant binding finish. It also does not look like an American period chair to me.
I see a lot of originally caned chairs that have later been covered with pressed fibreboard, embossed leather or wooden covers, for durability and economy. Caned seats aren't very durable and blow out after a few year, especially if you use them for stepping stools.
I agree, rocking chairs would not make suitable potty chairs.. nor stepping stools either for that matter. Either way, things would get pretty Western!

 

I don't think we dimenished it as an antique because it was a potty chair.
I think we did that based on style and construction. And of course we can be wrong. We only have one picture.

Those leatherette seats were often used to cover the holes left from caned seats. Re-caning has always been pricey. Those leatherettes were a less expensive fix.

 

Again: Not an antique.

Holes were placed in the bottom of some rockers and filled with cane, leather, etc. to create some "give" in the area of human anatomy that had the most contact with the chair.

 

That I do believe. However, those seats usually followed the form of the chair seat somewhat, squarish. The completely circular hole was probably for the purpose I mentioned.

It's a very long tradition to have potties in chairs. The kings (and queens too, I imagine) of Europe all had them in their thrones. They certainly weren't getting up to excuse themselves to repair to a 'loo somewhere in their castles. The castles didn't have any 'loos anyway; it was all potties back in those days, with servants doing the required servicing. The vernacular for a toilet in US English is actually "throne", come to think of it.

So there is nothing to be shocked about, dear thread readers. Some things are what they are whether we wish to believe it or not.

 

Commode chairs certainly exist and are common enough here. Rockers, not, other than those for children.

Castles most certainly did have loos, I've seen enough of them on visits to assorted ones in the UK and across Europe. A bench with a hole in it, usually, which went straight down into the moat. Privies. Or also called garderobes.

 

Yeah, OK! think I'll just quietly move on to the next thread!

 

The book "L'Envers de Versailles" describes the not-so-well known sides of the palace of Versailles, the "reverse". Among those was the fact that in the entire palace there were no 'loos. Potties were the order of the day, and minions saw to them. If some other European palatial digs had 'loos installed, it was considered extremely moderne for the times, whatever those times were. You're all welcome to look it up should you so desire. Personally I'll move on too

 

...I have nothing to offer except I have seen many English and Welsh castles. All with garderobes.

 

That's France for you.

This is English Heritage on the subject: http://blog.english-heritage.org.uk/top-10-toilets-through-time/ . As it says, garderobes were common. Urinals, not so much.

 

Last word on subject: I have five sons and had to engage their att'n ... they loved the trail of slimy pooey marks on the outer walls.
Copy & paste with link


Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire: The toilet tower
My home county has a rather posh and well known one too. ( LINK HERE) there’s a whole tower dedicated to doing your business. The garderobe tower was built in the later Middle Ages to replace a small single latrine, and the survival of such as large example is extremely rare in England in Wales. The loos could be accessed from the courtyard from one of three doors, leading to the ‘cubicles’. There might have been more than one seat in each chamber.




https://www.google.com/search?q=goo...VYURUIHXf-D8EQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1360&bih=625

 

The English, and Welsh of course, probably the Scots and Irish too, were way ahead in cleanliness, hygiene, over France. Earlier mentioned here, the Chateau de Versailles, lacked 'loos. It did, however, provide potty chairs. Mentioned in excerpts from the book L'Envers de Versailles, in original French:
Deux toilettes pour 3000 courtesans
Oh well, if French is not your thing you'll escape the grosseurs in the descriptions.

 

Gardez l'eau! - Hopefully the VERY last word.