C. Bai Lihme
Born
Christian Bai Lihme

(1866-05-24)May 24, 1866
Aalborg, Denmark
DiedOctober 15, 1946(1946-10-15) (aged 80)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Copenhagen
University of Heidelberg
Spouse
Olga Hegeler
​
(m. 1901)​
Children4, including Anita Lihme
Parent(s)Herman Rehling Lihme
Hermantine Moser Lihme
RelativesPrince Edouard de Lobkowicz (grandson)

Christian Bai Lihme (May 24, 1866 – October 15, 1946)[1] was a Danish-born naturalized American chemist, industrialist, and art collector.

Early life

Lihme was born in Aalborg, Denmark on May 24, 1866. He was the son of Herman Rehling Lihme (1819–1890) and, his second wife, Hermantine Adolphine (née Moser) Lihme (b. 1836).[1]

After attending the Aalborg Latin School, he went to the University of Copenhagen, where he specialized in chemistry and graduated in 1888, followed by studies at the School of Mines at Freiberg, Saxony.[1]

Career

After graduating from University in 1888, Lihme came to the United States and became the chief chemist of the Pennsylvania Lead Company of Pittsburgh, a position he held until 1893. He moved to Germany where he studied at the University of Heidelberg, returning to the U.S. in 1895 to become superintendent of the Illinois Zinc Company in Peru, Illinois and founded the Lihme Zinc Company.[2] In 1910, Lihme succeeded his father-in-law, Edward C. Hegeler, as president of the Matthissen & Hegeler Zinc Company of LaSalle, Illinois, founded by Hegeler and Frederick William Matthiessen in 1858.[3] Lihme, who had been secretary and vice-president before becoming president, retired in 1921.[1]

He also served as a director of several banks and mining corporations including the Hill State Bank of Chicago, the Equitable Trust Company of Chicago, Whiting & Co. of Chicago, the Quapaw Mining Corporation of Delaware, and the Mamarack Mining Company of Montana.[1]

Personal life

In 1901, Lihme married the Olga Hegeler (1878–1956), the youngest daughter of Edward C. Hegeler, a pioneer zinc smelter who had been born in Germany.[4] Together, the couple were the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters:

  • Olga Lihme (1902–1955), who married Clement Acton Griscom III (1899–1983), a grandson of Clement Griscom.[5]
  • Anita Lihme (1903–1976), who married Prince Edward Joseph Lobkowicz (1899-1959), son of Prince August Lobkowicz (1862-1921), Privy Counselor and Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Franz Josef, and Countess Mária 'Irma' Pálffy de Erdőd (1866-1950), former Countess Palermy, of Bohemia, was a lady-in-waiting to the Austrian Court.[6]
  • Harold Hegeler Lihme (1907–1964), who married Barbara Wall.[7][8] They divorced and he remarried to the former Princess Jane Wheeler (née Irby) Obolensky (1914–1981), the former wife of Prince Alexis Obolensky, in 1953.[9] His second marriage also ended in divorce.[10]
  • Edward Hegeler Lihme (1910–1999)[11]

He was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the River Club and The Union League Clubs of New York.[1]

After a long illness, Lihme died at his home at 950 Fifth Avenue on October 15, 1946.[1] He was buried at River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, Rhode Island. His widow died from a heart attack at their home in Palm Beach, Florida on November 9, 1956.[4]

Art collection

"Portrait of the Marchesa Lomellini" by Anthony van Dyck, c. 1623.

Following his 1921 retirement, Lihme began acquiring Flemish tapestries, porcelain and glassware, and notable artworks, including a number of paintings by internationally known artists as Peter Paul Rubens ("The Portrait of an Old Man"), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Van Ceulen, Rembrandt and others. In 1925, Lihme purchased "Portrait of the Marchesa Lomellini" for a reported sum of $200,000. The painting was one of seven famous works by Antony van Dyck that had hung for centuries in the Cattaneo Palace in Genoa.[12] In 1927, an elevator operator at his New York residence "wrecked the interior of his apartment, including many of its art objects, because he thought he was entitled to a bonus."[13]

Residences

The Lihmes lived in Chicago before moving to New York City where they first lived at 280 Park Avenue, at the corner of 48th Street. Around 1927, the family moved uptown to a triplex apartment at 950 Fifth Avenue, on the northeast corner of 76th Street. 950 Fifth Avenue, which overlooked Central Park, was a fourteen-story building designed by James Edwin Ruthven Carpenter Jr., and completed in January 1927 in the Italian-Renaissance palazzo-style.[3]

In 1916, Lihme acquired "Norman Hall", the former "cottage" of William W. Lawrence (a vice president of the National Lead Company) located at Watch Hill near Newport, Rhode Island.[14] The 10,000-square-foot stone house, later known as Lihme Castle, was completed in 1916, a month before Lawrence's death, and designed by New York architect Mott B. Schmidt and modeled after a French chateau.[15] In the 1950s and 1960s, the Lihme's rented Norman Hall to Charles W. Engelhard Jr., chairman of Engelhard Minerals and Chemicals Inc. In 1965, the Lihmes sold the cottage for $110,000 to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambéry as a retreat house.[16]

The Lihme family also owned a large oceanfront winter home in Palm Beach, Florida,[1] located at South Ocean Boulevard and County Road and designed by society architect Addison Mizner.[17]

Descendants

Through his daughter, Princess Edward Joseph de Lobkowicz, he was the grandfather of three: Prince Edouard de Lobkowicz (1926–2010), who married Princess Marie-Françoise of Bourbon-Parma, the eldest daughter of Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma and of his wife, Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset;[18][19] Prince George Christian de Lobkowicz (1928–1950),[20] who died unmarried at age twenty-one;[21] and Princess Anita Olga de Lobkowicz (b. 1937), who married Count Charles-Louis de Cossé-Brissac, a son of the Marquis de Cossé, in the fall of 1958.[22][23]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "BAI LIHME DIES; RETIRED CHEMIST; Former Head of Zinc Company in Illinois--Made Hobby of Collecting Classic Art Art Objects Wrecked Official of Many Firms" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 October 1946. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  2. ↑ Baltic and Scandinavian Countries. Baltic Institute. 1938. p. 38. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  3. 1 2 "C. Bai Lihme Residence - New York City". www.nycago.org. NYC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Mrs. C. Bai Lihme" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 November 1956. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "MISS LIHME TO WED CLEMENT A. GRISCOM; Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Bai Lihme Engaged--Admiral Fletcher's Daughter to Marry" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 December 1922. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  6. ↑ "Marriage of Miss Lihme and Prince Lobkowicz" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 August 1925. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  7. ↑ "Troth of Barbara Wall, Chapln Graduate, To Harold Hegeler Lihme Is Announced" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 January 1941. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  8. ↑ "NUPTIALS PLANNED OF BARBARA WALL; Will Be Wed Saturday to Harold Lihme in Church Here" (PDF). The New York Times. 15 April 1941. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  9. ↑ "Mrs. Jane Obolensky Weds Harold H. Lihme Sunday". The Palm Beach Post. 2 November 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  10. ↑ "Harold Hegeler Lihme". The New York Times. 7 December 1964. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  11. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths LIHME, EDWARD H." The New York Times. 14 September 1999. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "C. BAI LIHME BUYS A FAMOUS VAN DYCK; New Collector Believed to Have Paid $200,000 for" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 February 1925. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  13. ↑ "ART WRECKER SAYS HE SOU6HT REVENGE; Pleads Guilty to Damaging Objects Worth $300,000 in Home of C. Bai Lihme. TRIES TO CLEAR COMPANION Raid Laid to Anger Over Failure to Get Bonus -- Both Sent to Tombs, One for Sentence Aug. 9" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 August 1927. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  14. ↑ The Architectural Review. Bates, Kimball & Guild. 1919. p. 149. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  15. ↑ "Norman Hall, later Stone House/Lihme Castle". www.ri.gov. State of Rhode Island | Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  16. ↑ Schultz, Frances (28 August 2013). "Historic Watch Hill Mansion". Veranda.com. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  17. ↑ Curl, Donald Walter (1987). Mizner's Florida: American Resort Architecture. Architectural History Foundation. ISBN 9780262530682. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  18. ↑ "Prince, Princess Will Be Married In Paris on Jan. 7; Edward de Lobkowicz Fiance of Francoise of Bourbon-Parma" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 December 1959. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  19. ↑ "Princess, Prince Wed in Cathedral Of Notre Dame; Francoise of Bourbon- Parma and Edward de Lobkowicz Married" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 January 1960. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  20. ↑ "A Son to Princess Lobkowicz" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 November 1928. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  21. ↑ "GEORGE C. LOBKOWICZ" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 August 1950. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  22. ↑ "Count to Marry Miss Lobkowicz, 1955 Debutante; Charles Louis de Cosse Brissac and Daughter of Prince Engaged" (PDF). The New York Times. 24 July 1958. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  23. ↑ "Comte Brissac, New York Girl Wed in France; Veteran of French Army Marries Miss Anita Olga de Lobkowiczs" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 September 1958. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
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