Tell City Chair Co. Windsor Rocker, Pattern 618½ — Mahogany Finish

The Tell City Chair Company has been bending and turning hardwood in Tell City, Indiana since 1865 — through the Civil War's aftermath, two World Wars, the rise of mass furniture manufacturing, and the slow death of the American craft chairmaker. Most of those chairmakers are gone. Tell City isn't. This rocker is a direct product of that unbroken lineage: a Pattern 618½ continuous-arm Windsor rocker in the firm's Finish #27 Mahogany, built from solid hardwood the way it was built when the company was founded, with steam-bent components, turned spindles, and a hand-contoured saddle seat.

The form is everything a Windsor should be. Seven slender spindles fan upward into a steam-bent hoop crest that sweeps all the way down into scrolled arms, terminating in rolled knuckle ends — a single continuous arc of bent wood that gives the back its tension and its grace. Baluster-turned arm supports and legs carry the saddle seat, joined by a turned spindle stretcher and seated on bentwood rockers with a long, easy arc. The 1"-thick contoured seat is solid wood, sculpted to the body rather than flat — the kind of detail that separates a chair made to be sat in from one made to be sold. The original paper label remains intact on the underside, stamped with pattern, finish number, and maker.

CONDITION

Good overall and structurally sturdy — the joinery is tight and the chair rocks without play. Finish wear and loss are age-appropriate, most pronounced along the arm tops and crest where the mahogany finish has rubbed through to lighter bare wood; minor scuffs and handling marks to the seat surface.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 33 1/4" H × 22" W × 28 1/2" D
• Seat Height: 15"
• Seat Thickness: 1" (contoured)
• Maker: Tell City Chair Company, Tell City, Indiana — Chairmakers Since 1865
• Pattern: 618½
• Finish: #27 Mahogany
• Material: Solid wood