President Kennedy's Rocking Chair from the Carlyle

This is no longer an active sale. We keep this information on the website purely for archival purposes.

Painted ivory bamboo-style on oak; natural cane seating.

43 1/2 inches high, 26 inches wide; 20 inches 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 through lengthy political meetings. To alleviate his chronic pain, doctors recommended 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 Carlyle's 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 to 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.