Nichols and Stone Rockers
Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 1:14PM Margot 
Being the Queen of Rocking has its issues. It started when I was a toddler, and someone (I’m pretty sure it was Rene, my fairy godmother), bought me a rocking horse. I rocked it so hard, I tipped it over backwards, and my mother and father had to buy me a new one.
Three rocking horses later, they said, “No more!”
That didn’t stop me. In the back seat of the car (my father thought the car was stalling), neighbors’ children’s rocking horses, and then eventually rocking chairs.
My mother bought my father a Lazy Boy recliner rocker one year for Christmas. While it was his chair, for the most part, I commandeered it when he wasn’t around. I rocked. I rocked so hard, I broke the springs. Lazy Boy sent new ones. I broke those. For almost 10 years, I broke the springs, and Lazy Boy sent new ones. I think they had set up a regular shipment by the time the chair itself was ready to be retired.
After that, I spent the next few years coveting those dark, heavy pine rocking chairs that all my friends got with their new, heavy, dark pine, cannonball bedroom sets. I wanted one so bad, but they were very expensive. In the 70’s, a wooden rocking chair for $900 was a luxury I could not afford.
While I was out Antiquing several years ago, I happened upon one of those chairs. At $150 dollars and in perfect condition, I snapped it up and brought it to my parent’s house. I had two Brumby Porch Rockers (otherwise known as Kennedy Rockers) I had purchased just as the factory was going out of business, and they had gone with me from DC to CA. But now I had a rocking chair in Connecticut.
When I bought the house in Branford, one of the first pieces of furniture to get moved was the Pine Rocker. It went right in front of the fireplace, and it got used. So much so, that I would get chair envy whenever one of my guests dared to sit in it. There was only one solution: I needed another one.
I was on the hunt. I had researched the chair itself (I turned it over, looked on the bottom and then Googled what I found, very extensive), and discovered it was made by the oldest furniture company in the United States, Nichols and Stone, out of Gardner, MA. In fact, they still make rocking chairs, but not my precious pine version from the 70’s.
One afternoon I get a call from Chris (still dating at this point).
Him: “I think Grace and I found a rocking chair for you”
Me: “How much?”
Him: “$20.00”
It was a perfect match.
After that, I became the Rocking Chair Hunter. Every one of my guests who sat in that chair wanted one, and since then I have found four more, so if you think you are now going to find one, think again.
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Grace, Like you I had been looking for a rocker. Yard sale after yard sale.
and every where else where I might find one in good condition that I could afford. Well yesterday at a yard sale just around the corner from me. I found one just like yours, and perfect. Today I was looking on the net to see what kind it was and I found you. I loved your story, thank you for sharing it.
Keep rocking, JP
I have one thats an exact match and moving and unfortunately have to get rid of it. I know a round about how much it goes for just wondering if you know of any place that I can take it to sell it to and get what I deserve out of it. I'm fron Louisville, KY
Its a Nichols and Stone Rocker in perfect condition its the same as the picture you have posted at the top. If you have any ideas please let me know asap. Feel free to email me @ bsmallwood12@outlook.com
Thanks again!!