Featured Tell City White House furniture

I am trying to verify the authentication of this chair before it is on display at our local museum. My dad bought it from Tell City Furniture factory when we lived in Tell City, Indiana in the early 1960s. It is supposedly one of the Jackie Kennedy White House chairs from when she redesigned the White House. Does anyone have any information about it?

 

@verybrad
@Ghopper1924
@Roaring20s

 

It looks like the right vintage, but it’s otherwise out of my wheelhouse. To authenticate the White House connection you’d need a contemporary photo or some kind of testimonial to that effect.

 

If your Father bought it directly from the company that made it, it may be the same style/model that Jackie purchased, but not an actual chair used in the White House. It would be easy for the identity of such items to become garbled in retelling.

 

It is the same chair used in the White House but with a different finish. The White House chairs are gold and have a cane seat.

(14) Tell City Flood Wall Mural - Posts | Facebook

 

The chair backs look quite different:

 

You are right. I didn't look closely enough. The turnings are also different. Really a different chair with some similarities.

 

Dad saved his money and talked my mom out of $25.00 (as I remember) to purchase the chair directly from Tell City Furniture factory. In 1962, 25 dollars was a lot of money for a minister's family with 4 young kids. I know that the chair was never actually used at the White House. The chair has hardly been used but it was always out and displayed proudly in our front room. I inherited it after he passed away. I have looked on the web but have never found a photograph of that exact chair and The factory shut down in 2011. We would like to display it at our county museum but we need the correct information about the chair. (Cited from: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/tell-city-white-house-furniture.79806/)

 

We're doing our best !

 

This is another view of the White House style chair, according to this website:
https://www.williamtellantiques.com/tell-city-chair-history.html

 

Those would have been a cheap type of ballroom chair. A set of 40 kind of thing.The upholstery seems more 50's to me.

 

I am really glad for all the responses that I received about the Kennedy Era White House chair. Even though I am sure it is an actual White House Chair bought directly from the Tell City, Indiana Furniture Company. We lived in Tell City in 1962 and were there until the summer of 1966. I remember when they brought in a TV set to our 6th grade classroom so we could watch the live broadcast of the Kennedy aspiration. My dad was very proud and excited that he was able to purchase the chair and it remained in the living room of all the houses we lived in. Since I am unable to find any more information about the authenticity of this chair, I don't feel comfortable about displaying the chair in our county museum but I do have myself a very good mystery. I personally do not doubt that this chair is of a design that either was for the White House and not used or was used in a very small quantity and therefore is hard to verify.
Thanks again!
Bill

 

C'mon Bill....loosen a screw !!

Your museum must be part for education... display the chair with a disclaimer....u can say it's of the style...or believed to be.......with on going research pending...

who knows...maybe a visitor ...upon seeing it ...can authenticate it !!!!


Won't do the Museum no good sitting in the dark !!!!!..

 

Did you find this? A rather interesting oral history by a former Tell City president. He talks about the White House chairs and, for me, it's definitive that yours is not.

https://www.homefurnishingshalloffame.com/bert-r-fenn-tell-city-chair

Debora

 

He describes them as "Little gilt chairs".

I think the most you could say about your chair is that it was made by the same company as made the chairs for the White House.

 

I agree with the description above. There are many photographs confirming the exact chair purchased by the White House.

Debora

 

That would -at best- make it a White House-style chair, not an "actual White House Chair"... a phrase which would imply it had actually been used in the White House.
But, as photos have shown, the actual White House chairs are a different style.

 

From the linked reports, it sounds like the White house had some Chiavari chairs that were borrowed and decided to replace them with replica versions by Tell City someone saw at Saks Fifth Avenue. Here's a photo of a pair of real Italian Chiavari chairs from around 1900.

 

@Bill Martin Bl , the chair is very pretty, and to me it has an unusual back. (But I'm not a chair expert.) The painted decoration on the back does have a 1960s look. Just gave a look at images online, as others did, including you -- and didn't find this exact chair.

Just found out that a Tell City Chair Gallery and Museum opened in Tell City exactly one year ago today! They might be just a tourist attraction rather than a research site, but maybe they would know something about your chair? It looks like they have both a showroom that sells chairs and also a historical museum exhibit. They have a Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/p/Tell-City-Chair-Gallery-Museum-100063281405097/

I haven't found a website for them.

 

The original post only shows the top part of the chair, not the legs. But I found one on eBay that looks like the same chair style, but very different paint and upholstery cloth on the seat. Can't tell if the legs are the same. And the paint job on this one is not in good condition:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334982609769

Not much help, but at least there is another chair out there in the same style.