Name/Title
Chair, RockingEntry/Object ID
2004.06.01Description
Armless rocking chair with rawhide lattice seat, remnants of black paint visible. Well worn, but in good condition. This chair was made by T.P. Speek, who had a farm on the Tenalquot Plain, twelve miles southeast of Olympia. Speek was making chairs in the 1860's and sold his business to E.B. Pressey in 1870. Speek chairs are readily identified by the three splats across the back and unique mitered corner seat to support the rawhide lattice.
This chair is typical of furniture owned by the laboring class of Hudson Bay Company employees, who lived and worked at Fort Nisqually or one of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company outstations. It also represents the early commercial manufacture of furniture in the Puget Sound region, and a move away from importing such goods from places like San Francisco and points East.Dimensions
Height
32-1/2 inWidth
17-1/2 inDepth
26 in