Great little rocker ... but that style has been popular for so long that it's impossible to date it without finding a sticker or makers mark. Best guess would be to take the "rather elderly" woman's age and assume her mom got it as a baby gift early in her mom's married life.

If "rather elderly" to you is 70, that only gets you to the 1940s.

It's based on the popular "Windsor chair" that dates back to the 1700s.

Thanks. I could not find any sticker or markers mark. The woman who gave it to me was in her early 80's at the time. Her mother died about 4 years ago and was 104 years old. I thought of dating it to around her mother's birth, however, this woman and her mother were both born in the UK. They moved to the midwest later in life as adults. Given the comment that it was from Michigan, I'm assuming the mother bought it as an adult in the midwest. Based on the wear marks on the finish I think it may have gone through multiple generations. Or a a lesser amount of generations but with a lot of kids.

Can you tell what wood (or woods) it is made of?

How many pieces of wood make up the seat? One? Or several strips? (How many?)

If there are saw marks on the bottom of the seat, are they straight or arced?

How thick is the seat at its thickest?

The front legs go through the seat, showing as a "peg" on top. This is typical of older Windsor chairs. More modern ones usually do not go all the way through. Also, the way the rocker is attached to the bottom of the leg is how it was done early on: The leg is notched and the rocker fitted into it.

So it could be very old. However, accurate reproductions were also made -- on the other hand, they tend to be high-quality. Cheaper ones wouldn't have the seat "pegs" and the foot of the leg would be inserted into a hole in the rocker.

On to the Michigan bit: Primetime for Michigan's furniture industry was late 1800s-early 1900s. This is not typical of those pieces. It is possible that it was made in Michigan, of course, but also possible it was not.

It's almost impossible to tell from photographs whether this is a really old (several centuries) chair or one that is much more recent, but still good quality. You will need to take it to an an expert who specializes in early American furniture to find out.

You want an off-the-cuff guess? 1840s. But that is sheer wild speculation on my part. It could be much older or much newer.

Thank you for responding. Unfortunately I have no idea what the wood type is. The seat has 4 planks joined by 3 pegs. I see circular saw marks at the cut on the face of the base. The base of the seat is about 1.25 inches at it's thickest. The front legs do not go all the way through the base. My off-the-cuff guess is 1900-1910 or 1840-1860. I'll see if I can get more clues from the woman who gave it to me and will let you know what she says.

Here is a link that might be useful: rocker photos

seat base construction with pegs

Here is a link that might be useful: seat base construction

It smells like 1900-1910, but something tells me it's older. I'm stumped!

Ok - so on a 2nd passing, it looks like the swirls may be brush strokes in the shellac. The face of the cut side looks straight.

The wood used was like walnut wood. The design was like 1900.

sounds about right.