Old rocking chair S. F. Curtis Peinyan, NY on bottom

Thx in advance. The post have wedges of wood to expand the posts to stay in place. Any idea how old?

 

Welcome Mtn. Do you have trouble posting pictures? Maybe this thread will be of help:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/posting-a-thread-and-uploading-pictures.15990/

Please remember to click on 'full image' when you post photos.

 

Welcome, Mtn. For better searching, your S F Curtis may have been Samuel Fosdick Curtis of Penn Yan, Yates County, New York who was a "cabinet maker" and "furniture dealer" there until his death in 1871. Seeing good pictures of the whole chair will help determine whether it was made during his lifetime.

 

@Ghopper1924 Can you help with the general age of this chair?

 

I have discovered that SF's younger son, Perley P Curtis, apparently took over the management of his father's business after his father's death. In the 1880 Census, his occupation was listed as Furniture Dealer. It's possible, although I do not know for sure, that he maintained his father's name on the business, which might mean that the painted name on the bottom could post-date the father's death in 1871.

 

Found this also,
Perley Curtis continued his father’s businesses until 1882 when he became a partner of William H. Fox in a paper mill on the outlet.

 

Thanks, Mikey!

 

You are very welcome Susan.
This tells how he started

Samuel Fosdick Curtis was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1799. He left home at 17 to undertake a chair making apprenticeship with his older brother, Roswell Curtis, in Auburn. In 1824, he arrived in Penn Yan with a wagonload of stock goods and applied to Sheldon & Babcock to rent a room in the second story of their store to begin his business career. Mr. William Babcock offered the young man no encouragement. To the contrary he told young Curtis that another individual had already started a furniture company and would give formidable opposition. Mr. Curtis replied that he had “come to stay” and had no intention of being dissuaded from his purpose. Mr. Babcock was pleased with the young man’s spirit of independence and self-reliance and leased him shop room in a building at the southwest corner of Main and Head Streets. Young Samuel Curtis set up shop and began manufacturing and selling chairs. Thus began the business he worked in for nearly 46 years.

 

Wow! What great info. Thx

 

You are very welcome Mtn402. And forgot to say Welcome to Antiquers.
Mikey

 

Great research 916Bulldogs and Bakers! I see no reason not to attribute this to S.F. Curtis. Being in the northeast U.S. he was probably a bit ahead of the curve stylistically, so the chair could easily date to the mid 19th century. The style is pretty timeless. It could also date to the time of S.F.'s death or shortly thereafter, so a window of perhaps 1860-1875 might be realistic.

Nice chair, with great info to go with it!!

 

My wife wanted me to throw it away.

 

I hope you've convinced her otherwise! True, it needs a bit of TLC, but it's definitely worth doing a little work. You didn't say how you come to have it. Care to enlighten us?