October 24, 2007

Vitra Doesn't Know Where This Kid Rocking Chair Comes From

kidsize_rocker_vitra.jpg

Who is running the tour schedule Vitra's exhibition, "Kid-Size: The Material World of Childhood"? That is seriously the hardest-working, slightly self-promotingest exhibition in the museum business. As with so many other things in the baby world, it feels momentous and once-in-a-lifetime when you first discover it in the flush of new parenthood. Only later you come to find out it's been roaming the world's second-tier museums non-stop for over a decade, no newer or groundbreaking than a BabyPlus.

But unlike the BabyPlus, at least Kid-Size is good for something. Exhibition checklists proliferate online, which have new items that get added to the mix [since the catalogue has nothing from after about 1996 in it].

Like this sweet, anonymous children's rocking chair, for example, which is ambiguously dated to the 1930-1940's. Who knows, by now maybe Vitra's folks have identified the designer or the manufacturer, or even the country, and just haven't updated their materials yet. [Like how they keep publishing the wrong date and attribution for Gloria Caranica's Rocking Beauty hobby horse for Creative Playthings.]

Whoever it turns out to be by, if you've got a bandsaw in the garage and a hankerin' to do some knocking off, C-A-L-L M-E. This thing looks nice.

4 Comments

I think it was made with a bandsaw in the garage. I've seen a few of these on the ebays, variations on the "streamline art deco eames era retro rocker". My guess, homemade or some small operation in Pennsylvania or Michigan.

Man, I need to build one of those. So superior to the rockers at Kids R Us, and looks like it would be trivial to build.

I have a 1970's book called "make your own furniture" that i think has a very similar child's rocker.
Of course, the whole book is slot-together ply furniture assembled by this awesome hippie guy with a big beard.

[hippies?? Bloomfield? Williams? whassuup? -ed.]

If the little monsters go to bed at a decent hour tonight, I'll see what i can do about scanning some of the projects for you.

Google DT


Contact DT

Daddy Types is published by Greg Allen with the help of readers like you.
Got tips, advice, questions, and suggestions? Send them to:
greg [at] daddytypes [dot] com

Join the [eventual] Daddy Types mailing list!


Archives

copyright

copyright 2024 daddy types, llc.
no unauthorized commercial reuse.
privacy and terms of use
published using movable type