September 12, 2006

Das Ist Ein Sweet Sweet Schaukelwagen: 1950 Plywood Rocking Car

brockhage_rocking_car.JPG

While he's mostly known for his cantilevered Bauhaus chair, Dutch designer Mart Stam sometimes scores another mention--at least in design auction catalogues. At least one product resulting from a "toy design seminar" he held in Dresden--the Schaukelwagen by Hans Brockhage and Erwin Andra--has made it into the history books.

Dated to 1950, the Schaukelwagen is a rocking car made out of bent beech and birch ply. Turn it one way, it's a car, sort of a Playsam-like roadster with the body panels removed. but flip it over, and it's a rocking chair, too.

Compared to Creative Playthings' Hobby Horse, it's a bit insider baseball, but still, the rocking chair's a pretty remarkable piece of modernist children's design. And at auctions over the last year, it's sold for EUR700-1250, with a tubular steel prototype going for EUR1400. [One also sold in 2004 for just $US325, though.]

With numbers like that, the rocking car that just went up on eBay with an opening bid of $400 [and $70 shipping to the US from Holland] doesn't seem too far-fetched. Good luck.

BROCKHAGE plywood rocking chair / car 1950ies Germany
[ebay via dt reader/designshark andy]

1 Comment

Just to note, the price and shipping cost on the ebay sale are in Dollars not Euros

[good catch. and it's getting cheaper already! -ed.]

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