The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-15
ROCKING CHAIRS ARR
RAPIDLY VANISHING
IDOMESTIC TFATCFIED ROOF is OF ENGLISH ORIGIN ROC
Expert Declares They Had Ns
Real Reason for Existence
and Are Grotesque.

1t still gets In the W. Of your fao,
a far away hotel piazza 1t still ia -
seen going goodly clip on farnbo,.'
porches, but for all these exception, 49,,
ers of furniture see the doom ., a..
rocking chair.
THAT kind of chair has no rao,
son for existing and is going out ., q.
own accord" said one manufacture.
I'VE propose styles, but we are hero =.
make what people want, and with -.
spread oflbetter knowledge of furnitur.
and particularly Of chair models ~.
rocking chair In one Of the first tb,,,.
In the homo to be replaced.
You see. Louis XIV. never hear, =.
or saw a rocking chair. neither did nj,
grandson nor mis- great-grandson. T.
the latters troubled reign there VA
some rocking chairs, but not anv ~
america. 1t Is later than the Colonial
period that we ind them spreading owe.
Inhabited America. No good Ysnss.
could keep house without a rockInS
chair.
"Hepplewhite didn't make rocking
chairs. neither did Chippendale nor
Sheraton nor Adam. And as il wa fror,
models furnished by one or more OF tbsse
furniture artists that the aristocrsto
South was supplied the rocking char
was n long time in getting a footing ba-
low Mason and Dixons line When /,
did get down there the rocking chair
became very popular. The Southern
matron who remembered when she was
q belle liked to have these chairs on
her wide piazza. and as for the ia. old
nanny of the negro quarters she dotted
on EN-, chile
Their introduction In the South
meant the debasing OF taste. 1t doe,
not seem right to lay this entirely to the
rocking chair, but about the climax OF
Its popularity in the South people began
to get rid of their find old MAHOGANY
their set pieces which now they regret
the loss Of Many handsome homes in
the North are furnished with splendid
old canope and exquisite chairs from
this mad desire on the part of Southern
women to make a clean sweep Of their
old furniture.
but IL Ia fact that the rocking chair
Is an interloper without ancestry or
lineage and made to supply an element
or false comfort. The rocking chair
habit grows on what It covers in a days
Journey. for 1t Is a parapatetic piece Of
furniture and never stays placed, there
fore 1t cannot enter In a sane scheme Of
decoration. It is false locomotion, too.
as 1t 10 false way OF resting. The con-
hrmed rocker thinks he is soothing him.
self. but he is as mistaken as the man
who lives near a boiler factory and
denies its i'll effects on his nerves. There
ts nothing soothing or beneficial, doctors
rocking chair. and instead of its helping
the body to rest It impedes It,
Fashion. however. has issued a ukase
against this kind of chair and no better
,'eason Is required to explain its gradual
disappearance. But to obey fashion in
many instances Is hard. / know Of
women who are devoted to rockers but
who would not for the world. now that
they know better than to have them in
their furnishing scheme, admit that back
out OF sight in q sewing room or other
place sacred to herself there Is a rock
Ing chair where she can go and indulge
her fancy for motion unrebuked. A
woman like this ought to have the cour-
age of her rocker. but she hasn't.
There are other women whose homes
are beautifully and comfortably fur
nished In the style of Louis Quinze. tho
cushioned style, who are not happy I'M
I'll they find on their list Of acquaintance
one who still undulges in rocking chair
She will visit her as often as she can
find an excuse simply that she may have
an opportunity to rock at her ease.
with the entrance OF period furnl-
ture the little lease on life that ta!s
grotesque chair still kept was broke l..
Favorite or not, IL had to be banisht l..
am sorry for the people who y.;ll
want to rock, but In my own clientele !
would seriously frown on the attempt TO
smuggle II in along with Jacobean, Tudor
or furniture OF French of Italian epochA
It is too homogeneous"
II manufacturer finds speech to so
cruelty doom the rocker. what is left ~
the emphatic to declare how the deco
rator despises II. He simply ignores
the existence Of the rocking chair; IN
fact IL never did exist for hin
And yet there are factories that still
turn out rocking chairs by the thou
sands. Where do they go? To South
America and Spain. The Latin tenrera-
ment finds a fitting place TO indulge
siesta in these American" chairs In
all Spanish countries there are neary
as many rockin; chairs in every home
as there are women, and these charm
ing women, brought up amid the most
beautiful models OF furniture ever blat
are nothing at all for style