PRESENTING an ABSOLUTELY STUNNING and HISTORIC American Childs Chair belonging to well known American Author – Lida Calvert Hall and dated 1867.

This Chair has IMPECCABLE  PROVENANCE:

It was part of the Lida Calvert Hall/Obenchain Collection and Estate and has been in the family’s possession since before 1867.

We are of the OPINION that this chair was painted at one time. There is evidence of old paint, on various parts of it.

The back splat support has the initials of “E.H.”carved into it for Eliza Hall.

On the underside of the seat appears to be the name “Lida 67”. (or Liza).

It has a spindle back with bowed top support and hand-turned legs.

Made entirely of walnut.

Lida Calvert Hall was born in 1856, meaning she would have been 11 years old when she signed/personalized this chair.

She would have grown up with this chair in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

It was most likely made, in or around Kentucky or Virginia.

ENTIRELY HAND-CRAFTED

Eliza Caroline “Lida” Obenchain (née Calvert), (February 11, 1856 – December 20, 1935) was an American author, women’s rights advocate, and suffragist from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Lida Obenchain, writing under the pen name Eliza Calvert Hall, was widely known early in the twentieth century for her short stories featuring an elderly widowed woman, “Aunt Jane”, who plainly spoke her mind about the people she knew and her experiences in the rural south.

Lida Obenchain’s best known work is Aunt Jane of Kentucky which received extra notability when United States President Theodore Roosevelt recommended the book to the American people during a speech, saying, “I cordially recommend the first chapter of Aunt Jane of Kentucky as a tract in all families where the menfolk tend to selfish or thoughtless or overbearing disregard to the rights of their womenfolk.”

Eliza Caroline Calvert, daughter of Thomas Chalmers Calvert and Margaret (Younglove) Calvert, was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky on February 11, 1856. She was known as “Lida” throughout her life. Lida’s father Thomas Chalmers Calvert was born in Giles County, Tennessee to Samuel Wilson Calvert, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Eliza Caroline (Hall) Calvert. Lida’s mother, Margaret Younglove, was from Johnstown, New York.

Lida attended a local private school, and then Western Female Seminary in Oxford, Ohio. She pursued two of the careers acceptable for a single woman in her era, teaching school and writing sentimental poetry. She began her professional writing career to help support her mother and siblings. Scribner’s Monthly magazine accepted two of her poems for publication in 1879 and paid her the equivalent of US$600. She continued writing and had at least six more poems published before age thirty.

On July 8, 1885, Lida married 44-year-old Major William Alexander Obenchain. Obenchain was a Virginia native and American Civil War veteran who in 1883 became president of Ogden College, a small men’s school in Bowling Green. Lida and William had four children: Margery, William Alexander Jr. (Alex), Thomas Hall and Cecilia (Cecil). Her family responsibilities left her with limited time to write. Her frustration as an unpaid housewife motivated her to support the cause of women’s suffrage and to work with the Kentucky Equal Rights Association.

In literary circles, Lida was known by her pseudo name, Eliza Calvert Hall. In addition to her commentaries on women’s suffrage written for Kentucky newspapers, she used many of her short stories to encode suffrage arguments. Those who read Aunt Jane of Kentucky, Lida’s first published collection of short stories in 1907, observed the simple mountain wisdom of Aunt Jane without being fully aware of the political subtext contained within the stories. President Theodore Roosevelt even publicly praised Lida for this collection of short stories that featured an elderly widowed woman, “Aunt Jane,” who told the experiences of the people in a rural southern town, named Goshen, to a younger woman visitor who relayed them to the reader. This type of rhetorical device, called a “double narrative,” was a common form of storytelling in this era.

William Obenchain died on August 17, 1916, after an extended illness. Family responsibilities caused her to move to Dallas, Texas to care for her daughter Margery, who had contracted tuberculosis. She continued to write, but her most productive years as a writer were past. After the death of her daughter in 1923, she stayed in Texas, where she died on December 20, 1935.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Calvert_Hall

American Childs Chair belonging to Lida Calvert Hall 1867

Provenance: This chair is part of the Lida Calvert Hall/Obenchain Collection/Estate, formerly of Highland Park, Dallas, TX, Bowling Green, KY & Virginia.

Condition: Overall in extremely good condition. Normal aging to the wood with beautiful natural patina.

Some small cracks and crevasses in the wood, but in GORGEOUS ORIGINAL CONDITION. We would not change a thing.

Dimensions: 24 in. high, 13 in. wide, 13 in. deep. Seat Height of 11.5 in.

SALE PRICE NOW: $860