19th Century American Walnut Childs Chair with Provenance

This Chair has impeccable provenance:

It is part of the Lida Calvert Hall Obenchain Collection 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 paint all over 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).

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

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

It was most likely made in or around Virginia.

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.”

Provenance: This Commode is part of the Lida Calvert Hall/Obenchain/Godwin/McMillan Collection (formerly of Highland Park, Dallas, TX).

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!