WHAT TO COLLECT NOW: MID-CENTURY MODERN ROCKING CHAIRS

A wonderful item to start or augment a mid-20th-century collection is the Eames rocking chair, also called the RAR (rocking armchair rod), introduced in 1948 and designed by famed American husband-wife designers Charles and Ray Eames. “The chairs are swell,” says Glen Guidroz, owner of Cool Stuff, an antiques shop in Houston (re-located from New Orleans) specializing in mid-century originals. “The Eames rockers appeal to young collectors and serious buyers alike,” says Guidroz, who recently sold a pair of orange 1950s Eames rockers, with their trademark reinforced-fiberglass shell, Eiffel-tower metal base, and maple rockers.

Mid-century Eames rockers range in price from $250 to $950 each. Guidroz says one of the factors explaining the range in price is the two different edges on the armchair shell. “There’s a rope edge that you can feel if you run your hand along the underside of the arm,” says Guidroz, “and then there’s the regular edge. The rope edge usually costs more.”

Photo courtesy of Herman Miller

Guidroz says to be aware of all the new Eames rockers on the market; indeed, the chair is still produced by Herman Miller. (The new chairs are made of polypropylene, and are thus much lighter in weight than the originals; the new Eames rockers are available from such Web sites as www.dwr.com and www.allmodern.com, for about $450.)

Serious collectors also look for mid-century rocking chairs by other leading designers such as T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, a British-born American designer whose 1950s rockers were made of wood; Ole Wanscher, a Danish designer who made a solid teak rocker in the 1950s; or Hans Wegner, a Danish designer who is known for his J16 rocking chair, introduced in 1943 and made of solid beech. “Wegner did a phenomenal wood rocker,” says Guidroz, although he cautions that original Wegner rockers cost $15,000 to $20,000 on the rare occasions they come up for sale.

For more information about mid-20th-century chairs, check Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s, by Cara Greenberg (Harmony Books, 1995), or Sourcebook of Modern Furniture, Third Edition, by Jerryll Habegger and Joseph H. Osman (W.W. Norton, 2005).