Chair, Rocking

Description

Early #7 production rocking chair with arms, four slat back, and shawl bar. Chair of maple with replacement bamboo splint seat. Stained dark brown; seat natural.

Notes

The rocking chair is typical of those produced by the Shaker chair factory at Mount Lebanon between the early 1870s and the turn of the century. It is a "Number 7", the largest size made at the factory. In 1873, Mary Marvin Olcott of Albany, NY, purchased this rocker from R.M. Wagan, Manufacturer of Shakers Chairs, with cushions, and a smaller rocker for the family home in Arbor Hill, Ten Broeck Mansion, where it remained in the parlor for many years. The chairs were included in a painting of Mary's father, Thomas W. Olcott (1795-1880), in the family's parlor by Walter L. Palmer (1854-1932) in the collection of the Albany Institute of History and Art. Mrs. Leonard D. Adkins, one of the heirs of the Olcott estate, gave the chair and receipt to the Shaker Museum in 1974. Link to the Albany Institute's collection database record for the painting showing the chair: http://www.albanyinstitute.org/details/items/library-at-arbour-hill-olcott-interior.html