The hassock has landed!

Here’s Raymond putting our new vintage hassock to excellent use at the Manse. Gracious – that hassock’s 1960s or ’70s gold colour almost matches his shirt!

Back in January of this year, I did a post (you can read it here) wherein I wondered what had ever happened to a piece of furniture that was once in every North American living room: to wit, the hassock. And I recounted how Raymond and I felt we needed at least one hassock for the Manse in Queensborough, not only because its presence would be true to my midcentury childhood there, but also because – well, because we needed something to put our feet up on. Simple as that.

Since then I’ve been carefully scouting every antique barn and collectibles place that we’ve gone into (and believe me, we go into a lot), and also searching eagerly at yard sales and auctions. I found a handful of hassocks, but nothing that seemed just right for the Mad Men-era look that I rather like for the Manse’s decor. Also, as Nancy Abdalla pointed out in a comment on that first post on hassocks, it was kind of part of the deal that the hassock be round, so that a kid could turn it on its side and roll on it (particularly, as I recall, during The Wonderful World of Color, later The Wonderful World of Disney). So I was looking for a round hassock with just the right fake-leather fabric in the perfect garish midcentury colour.

Our newly acquired hassock, stashed in the back seat of the car. Is that not a handsome hassock?

And now I’ve found one! Yes, the Stratford (Ont.) Antique Warehouse, the source of several recently discovered treasures, has done it again.

The new (to us) gold hassock (with wheels even!) looks just right. Like it belongs. And it is very comfortable to put one’s feet up on it while reclining in the rocker.

The only problem? There’s only one of it, and two of us. Clearly we need another hassock.