The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-27
IT'S UPS AND DOWNS.
This County the Only One in Which Rocking Chairs are in General
 Use

New York Evening Post.
 Rocking chairs, as a general propoaition are declining in popularity. Although furniture manufacturers report an in
 increase does not correspond to the growth of population. In other words, ten years ago. three or four more people out of every 10000 sat habitually in rock ing chairs than do now.
 Early each summer there spring up a demand for rocking chairs to be deliv- cred at the country houses Of city people. Apparently so manufacturers say, people of position in the community do not care at all to rock in winter, but are eXtrav-
 agantly fond of 1t in summer. Through the country, and in the poorer quarters
 of the cities, demand for rockers con-
 tinues unabated.
 How characteristically the rocking chail
 is an American institution Is illustrated
 by the experience of a. manufacturer Of
 this city. who, almost fifty years ago, took one of his chairs to Portugal. where
 he spent the summer. Although a hun dred years had passed since the first
 rocking chair was made in this country, none of them apparently had yet been
 seen in Portugal. and people travelled
 miles to look at it. and even constructed clumsy limitations.
 manufacturer of chairs in South
 Ashburnham, Mass, who could probably
 make good a claim to the title of great
 est living authority on rocking chairs.
 has made & special study of the various
 forms of chairs. both those obsolete and
 those in use today. He has found no
 evidence of the use of rocking chairs
 prior to 115o. Up to that date he had traced the development of the pieces of furniture used to sit on without finding either a picture or a mention of any that had rockers. In a letter he summarizes
 some of the results of his work as fol-
 lows:
 "In the first place, have seen chairs h nhn nhS Of chairs that were made in Egypt more than 4OO years ago. From that time down to the present I have followed the history of chairmak- ing and the style of chairs that have been used in various parts of the world. One of the simplest but the most con venient and comfortable chairs of ancient times was a chair used in Egypt some i,5OO years B. c. I have seen chair taken from the ruins of Ninevah that was probably made about 300 years 5. c. The Assyrians were people who in- dulged in luxuries of various Kinds. Tney had their comfortable chairs, couches and lounges. I have seen various patterns of their chairs cut in stone. but find none with rockers. There are various bas-re- liefs in the British Museum, taken from the ruins of Assyrian cities, which show
 various styles of very comfortable chairs; that has casters on them. that would move about, chairs with reclining backs. chairs with arms rests and head rests, but
 l fail to find any with rockers. 'l have carefully eXafnlneu tne dHliqui ties of Greece and Rome, and find vari- ous kinds of furniture for sitting and re- clining hut none with rockers; in fact, | my investigations, from the most ancient | times down to the present. lead me 10 | conclude that rockers were never used on chairs prior to l750. I am inclined to believe that 1t was an invention of about l l76O In 1763 Thomas Chippendale issued
 a volume and used the following title; l The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Di- l rector being a large collection of most | elegant and useful designs for household | furniture in the most fashionable taste. | Including a great variety of chairs, sofas ! etc. This work is in the library in l'on' | don. It has received a careful examina- | ton by me. and yet there l do not md the use of rockers.
 | Tn 1892 a man by the name of Shear | ton published in England a book of de- 1 signs on furniture. Many chairs are rep l resented in that book, but none with | rockers In 1908. G. Smith published g | book illustrating furniture. but there i' | no allusion made in great variety oi | designs of chairs to a rocking chair l "As there has been a great deal ol transformation circulated in regard t' chairs by would-be historians. l am un | willing to place myself on record as glV 1 ing the date that rockers were nrst nset l as chairs 1 have seen rocking cnlii | that purported to come from the May | flower. but I know better. l have seer | in printed hisory of certain town II | this section the name of a certain naI | who claimed to be the inventor Of char | cane This man. according to the Would be historian. invented. or rather used | cane for chair seats early in the last cen | tury, about the year 1908, and certsn | persons have taken a great deal Of credl l to themselves as being the descendant'