Help researching an old rocking chair (c. 1909)

Factual Questions
1

This rocking chair has been in our family since 1909. My great-grandparents bought it that year, but it may or may not have been new at the time. I believe it was purchased in the St. Louis area (although I suppose it might have been purchased elsewhere and then moved to St. Louis). It was in my mom and dad’s house as long as I can remember, and now I have it. My brothers and I have always loved it.

I’d like to find out more about it, including whether it was new in 1909, what company might have produced it, etc. There are no labels or other marks that I can see on the chair. The chair might have been refinished at some point in its life, but not since I’ve been alive (I’m 44).

My research hasn’t got me very far. Based on images I find online, the chair looks similar to some models sold by the S.A. Cook furniture company in the early 1900s. Some Cook chairs have similar spindles and lion’s head carvings, but the ones I see online are otherwise fairly different. I’d love to turn up an S.A. Cook catalog from the period, or maybe a catalog from a St. Louis furniture store, but I haven’t had any luck so far.

So, if you have any suggestions to guide my research, or if you can identify the chair, I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks.

2

Did you see this?

It is a supplement to a 1905 catalog. I didn’t download the files so not sure if your chair is there.

3

I didn’t see that. Thanks. It’s hard to read and navigate on my phone, but I’ll take a look when I get to a PC. It looks promising.

4

I got the full PDF and found a few chairs that were similar. I also found some other catalogs. (And, as an aside, I didn’t realize archive.org had so much old content digitized. It’s damned amazing!) Anyway, I haven’t found the particular chair yet, but I’m more convinced it’s probably an S.A. Cook chair. I might try to contact the library that uploaded it to see if they other catalogs available.

And again, archive.org. Dayyummm. Never knew they had so many old books.