Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

"FOR DEMOCRACY": EDITH'S WILSON'S EMBROIDERED SILK PURSE. An embroidered silk handkerchief linen purse belonging to the First Lady, image 1
"FOR DEMOCRACY": EDITH'S WILSON'S EMBROIDERED SILK PURSE. An embroidered silk handkerchief linen purse belonging to the First Lady, image 2
Lot 12

"FOR DEMOCRACY": EDITH'S WILSON'S EMBROIDERED SILK PURSE.
An embroidered silk handkerchief linen purse belonging to the First Lady,

14 October 2020, 13:00 EDT
New York

US$1,500 - US$2,500

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

"FOR DEMOCRACY": EDITH'S WILSON'S EMBROIDERED SILK PURSE.

An embroidered silk handkerchief linen purse belonging to the First Lady, embroidered with an eagle clutching an American flag above "For Democracy," with plastic "U.S.A." pin beneath, given by Wilson to Maggie Rogers soon after President Woodrow Wilson's 1917 inauguration, 181 x 156 mm, folded, with silk painted American flag pocket inside.
Provenance: Edith Galt Wilson (1871-1962); gift to Maggie Rogers (1874-1963; White House maid, Taft to Roosevelt); by descent to Lillian Rogers Parks (1897-1997; best-selling author; seamstress and White House maid, Hoover through Eisenhower, letter of provenance).

BEAUTIFUL ROYAL PURPLE SILK PURSE EMBROIDERED WITH THE SUFFRAGETTE SLOGAN "FOR DEMOCRACY." According to Lillian Rogers Parks (in a letter included), Edith Wilson gave the purse when she and the President moved into the White House, with the words "President Wilson prefers that I not keep this because someone might see me with it and not understand."

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.