Q: We have four Hitchcock-style chairs made by the Boling Chair Co. of Siler City, N.C. We have been unable to find any information about this company. Can you help?
A: Boling Chair Co. started out in 1901 as Siler City Bending Co. One of the company’s founders, Mal Boling, rounded up new investors in 1904 and reorganized the company as High Point Bending and Chair Co. It made bentwood parts for other companies before producing its own bentwood furniture. It later expanded its furniture lines. The company’s name became Boling Chair Co. in 1956 or ’57, and then Boling Co. in 1979. Today it’s based in Mt. Olive, N.C., and is called Boling Furniture Co. If your chairs are marked “Boling Chair Co.,” they were made between 1956 and 1979. Chairs like it sell online for about $50 apiece.