For sale is a rare ANTIQUE ORNATE TONK PIANO STOOL from Tonk Manufacturing Company. Chicago, Illinois. This distinctive working stool is in excellent condition. The stool stands on four metal with banded details and the wood seat swivels for easy height adjustment. The metal bracket underneath the seat is stamped “Tonk of Chicago & New York”. The round seat measures 14 1/2 inches diameter. The seat stands 18 inches tall when the seat is set to its lowest setting and can be raised to about 22 inches tall at its tallest setting. This top notch piano stool with wrought iron feet is much more uncommon than the style of piano stools with four wooden turned legs with a claw and ball feet.
In the 1880’s, Tonk Manufacturing began to make swivel seat piano stools for the growing musical industry. By 1893, the company owned nearly five acres of factory ground and employed 150 Chicagoans, including 18 children, 19 women, and Max’s younger brother Albert Tonk, who’d joined the business as its treasurer. Tonk became the largest maker of piano stools in the country, making the majority of swivel seat stools on the market; including the ubiquitous round stool with claw and ball feet.
