C. Bai Lihme

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).

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.

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.{{cite book |title=Baltic and Scandinavian Countries |date=1938 |publisher=Baltic Institute |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OIYXAQAAMAAJ |accessdate=22 July 2019 |language=en}} 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.{{cite web |title=C. Bai Lihme Residence - New York City |url=http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/ResLihmeCB.html |website=www.nycago.org |publisher=NYC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists |accessdate=22 July 2019}} Lihme, who had been secretary and vice-president before becoming president, retired in 1921.

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.

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. 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.{{cite news |title=MISS LIHME TO WED CLEMENT A. GRISCOM; Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. Bai Lihme Engaged--Admiral Fletcher's Daughter to Marry. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/12/30/102911340.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=30 December 1922}}
• 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), of Bohemia, was a lady-in-waiting to the Austrian Court.{{cite news |title=Marriage of Miss Lihme and Prince Lobkowicz |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/08/23/119052432.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=23 August 1925}}
• Harold Hegeler Lihme (1907–1964), who married Barbara Wall.{{cite news |title=Troth of Barbara Wall, Chapln Graduate, To Harold Hegeler Lihme Is Announced |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/01/29/85313109.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=29 January 1941}}{{cite news |title=NUPTIALS PLANNED OF BARBARA WALL; Will Be Wed Saturday to Harold Lihme in Church Here |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/04/15/85480547.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=15 April 1941}} 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.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Jane Obolensky Weds Harold H. Lihme Sunday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29255021/mrs_jane_obolensky_weds_harold_h/ |accessdate=7 March 2019 |work=The Palm Beach Post |date=2 November 1953 |pages=6}} His second marriage also ended in divorce.{{cite news |title=Harold Hegeler Lihme |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/07/archives/harold-hegeler-lihme.html |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=7 December 1964}}
• Edward Hegeler Lihme (1910–1999){{cite news |title=Paid Notice: Deaths LIHME, EDWARD H. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/14/classified/paid-notice-deaths-lihme-edward-h.html |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=14 September 1999}}

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

After a long illness, Lihme died at his home at 950 Fifth Avenue on October 15, 1946.{{cite news |title=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 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/10/16/107146552.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=16 October 1946}} 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.{{cite news |title=Mrs. C. Bai Lihme |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/11/10/86700688.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=10 November 1956}}

File:Anthony van Dyck - Retrato da Marquesa Lomellini, com os Filhos em Oração, c. 1623.jpg, {{Circa|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.{{cite news |title=C. BAI LIHME BUYS A FAMOUS VAN DYCK; New Collector Believed to Have Paid $200,000 for |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/02/26/98816089.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=26 February 1925}} 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."{{cite news |title=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. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/08/02/98415931.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=2 August 1927}}

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.

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.{{cite book |title=The Architectural Review |date=1919 |publisher=Bates, Kimball & Guild |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iNDmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA149 |accessdate=22 July 2019 |language=en}} 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.{{cite web |title=Norman Hall, later Stone House/Lihme Castle |url=https://www.ri.gov/preservation/search/view.php?idnumber=WESY00261 |website=www.ri.gov |publisher=State of Rhode Island {{!}} Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission |accessdate=22 July 2019}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Schultz |first1=Frances |title=Historic Watch Hill Mansion |url=https://www.veranda.com/decorating-ideas/g981/watch-hill-rhode-island-historic-mansion/ |website=Veranda.com |accessdate=22 July 2019 |date=28 August 2013}}

The Lihme family also owned a large oceanfront winter home in Palm Beach, Florida, located at South Ocean Boulevard and County Road and designed by society architect Addison Mizner.{{cite book |last1=Curl |first1=Donald Walter |title=Mizner's Florida: American Resort Architecture |date=1987 |publisher=Architectural History Foundation |isbn=9780262530682 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNhPAAAAMAAJ |accessdate=22 July 2019 |language=en}}

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;{{cite news |title=Prince, Princess Will Be Married In Paris on Jan. 7; Edward de Lobkowicz Fiance of Francoise of Bourbon-Parma |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/12/14/102303390.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=14 December 1959}}{{cite news |title=Princess, Prince Wed in Cathedral Of Notre Dame; Francoise of Bourbon- Parma and Edward de Lobkowicz Married |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/01/08/99336282.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=8 January 1960}} Prince George Christian de Lobkowicz (1928–1950),{{cite news |title=A Son to Princess Lobkowicz. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/11/12/95651043.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=12 November 1928}} who died unmarried at age twenty-one;{{cite news |title=GEORGE C. LOBKOWICZ |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/08/26/91633344.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=26 August 1950}} 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.{{cite news |title=Count to Marry Miss Lobkowicz, 1955 Debutante; Charles Louis de Cosse Brissac and Daughter of Prince Engaged |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/07/24/80784126.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=24 July 1958}}{{cite news |title=Comte Brissac, New York Girl Wed in France; Veteran of French Army Marries Miss Anita Olga de Lobkowiczs |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/09/21/91407788.pdf |accessdate=22 July 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=21 September 1958}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• [http://ao.salldata.dk/osd_vis.php?bsid=356533&side=29 Birth Register 1864-1873, Aalborg Budolfi Parish, Denmark]
• {{fg|188394100|Christian Bai Lihme}}
• [http://halfpuddinghalfsauce.blogspot.com/2014/08/stone-house-aka-norman-hall-watch-hill.html "Stone House" AKA "Norman Hall" Watch Hill, Rhode Island]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lihme, C. Bai}}

Category:1866 births

Category:1946 deaths

Category:University of Copenhagen alumni

Category:Heidelberg University alumni

Category:People from Aalborg

Category:Danish emigrants to the United States