Lot 826 email save

President John F. Kennedy's Rocking Chair

Painted ivory bamboo-style on oak; natural cane seating with colonial print cushions (Consignor replaced originals). 43 1/2" high, 26" wide; 20" deep. John F. Kennedy injured his back during his heroic rescue of 10 men during World War Two. This injury was constantly aggravated as he sat throughlengthy political meetings. To alleviate his chronic pain, doctors recomended that he use a rocking chair. He commissioned approximately twelve chairs which were divided among his various residences. Several were placed in the White House, and famous Oval Office photographs include John F. Kennedy rocking in his chair as he conducts meetings with dignitaries and advisors. A reporter once asked Kennedy, during an interview when he was running for the Presidency, "Do you plan on taking your rocking chair with you to the White House if you are elected President?" Kennedy responded, "Whither I goest - it goes." Two Kennedy rockers were situated in New York City's Carlyle Hotel where Kennedy, as a young Senator and later as President, maintained Suite 34A, which consisted of several small bedrooms upstairs and a living room downstairs. Kennedy and his staff often met with dignitaries, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Dick Goodwin, in this suite. After John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, The CaryleÕs Resident Manager, Samuel Toojay, commissioned a hotel furniture liquidator to discreetly dispose of the suite's contents, including the furniture. The liquidator, a fervent Kennedy admirer, was greatly awed by the two rocking chairs and agreed accept them as partial commission. The new owner, a community leader and prominent philanthropist, proudly displayed the chairs in his home, making the "Kennedy shrine" a conversation centerpiece for over thirty years. This lot is being sold by the estate of the gentleman who aquired the rocker directly from the Carlyle Hotel following the assasination. The rocker has remained in that family's possesion for more than forty years. PLEASE NOTE: This lot is not part of the Pugliese Collection.