Winter Auction 2015 closing February 7
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/8/2015
One of the lesser celebrated tasks and roles of the President of the United States is that of chief diplomat and host of any number of foreign and domestic dignitaries. The White House hosts any number of social affairs both formal and casual and items used in the service of food and refreshment must be top notch. The 32nd President of the Unites States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt remains the only U.S. president elected to four terms and was a consummate American statesman and lifelong politician born to a prominent New York family in Hyde Park New York in 1882. Quite familiar with the formalities of high society Roosevelt was surrounded in luxury to every last detail including items like this personally owned and frequently used seven piece silver-plate pickle castor set consisting of two 5 ½ inch cut glass jars, decoratively engraved with Roosevelt’s “F.D.R.” initials and delicate octagonal stoppers contained in a silver frame engraved with “NASM,” in reference to Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvart Maatschappij (Holland America Line) while the base of the frame is stamped on its bottom with “Van Zwanenburg N.V. Rotterdam” and “Christolfe” in addition to “GR53” and the numbers “90” “1” and “4.” A matching pair of three-tined serving forks with barbed sides are also engraved with the NASM mark and stamped with Elkington, England, proof marks and the letter “V” in a shield on their undersides. Fantastic conversation piece comes with letter of provenance written typewritten on White House letterhead and signed by Lillian Rogers Parks who served as a housekeeper and seamstress at the White House for more than 30 years during the Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations. The accompanying letter states in part: “This pair of jars and silver holder was owned and used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When my favorite President, FDR, passed away in 1945, the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt called us in the bedroom at the White House where she laid out numerous personal items…Mrs. Roosevelt said we should all take what we wanted because it was all going to Hyde Park and this would be our last chance. This pair of jars and the silver holder was given to me by the First Lady.”