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Elegant set of three late 19th-century Victorian mahogany dining chairs by A. E. Ostermeier, Inc., originating from the estate of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, which were originally custom-ordered and presented to the couple by Franklin’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, when her son and daughter-in-law moved into her double townhouse on 47-49 East 65th Street in Manhattan, New York, with Sara residing at No. 47, and Franklin and Eleanor, with their two young children, Anna and James, living in No. 49.
The furniture consists of two armchairs and one side chair, all in George III style, each with seats padded in rose-stained silk, straight molded legs, and a shield-form back centered with three ostrich feathers, a plume device found on the Roosevelt family coat of arms. In overall very good to fine condition, with varying degrees of wear from use, including repaired cracks, chips, and rubbing to the frame, and some light stains to the fabric.
Roosevelt House, the double townhouse at 47–49 East 65th Street, played a central role in the personal and political lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1905, Sara Delano Roosevelt promised the home to the newly married couple, and by 1908 Franklin and Eleanor settled into No. 49 while Sara lived next door at No. 47. Over the next 24 years, the house became the base from which Franklin rose from New York State Senator to President of the United States, including his recovery there after polio in 1921. It was also where Eleanor began her public life and lifelong advocacy for civil liberties and human rights.
Roosevelt House hosted influential figures from across American public life, including Mary McLeod Bethune, Frances Perkins, Harold Ickes, and Henry Morgenthau. In the winter of 1932–1933, Franklin convened key meetings there that helped shape the First Hundred Days and the early New Deal.
The Roosevelts also developed a close relationship with neighboring Hunter College. After Sara’s death in 1941, the family sold the house to a nonprofit consortium representing Hunter students, with President Roosevelt reducing the price and contributing to a new student library. In 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt attended the reopening of the building as the Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House, honoring Sara’s commitment to interfaith and interracial understanding and establishing one of the nation’s earliest student centers of its kind.
Provenance: Sara Delano Roosevelt; Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; John A. Roosevelt; Christie’s, February 2001: Selections from the Private Collections of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt and Family.
