Posted 6 years ago
BrianD
(4 items)
Few weeks ago I posted, it's been a long search, Eleanor Roosevelt had a company called Val kill industries, curators were baffled, Eleanor had pieces made for the White House, I got to looking at the White House, did Nancy Cook her designer use the White House for inspiration, the east wing pillars, the foliage on the railing, I found a R sundial monogrammed spoon stuck in the drawer bottom, , now waiting on photos, this would be my best piece ever..... Y
It's so close still waiting on photos, I will freak out if I solve it....
Got lucky, the spoon matches a inventory list taken at Top Cottage in 1945, sundial was mentioned on a salt and pepper pots, the spoon has a sundial, Elliott Roosevelt will view the photos in a few weeks, he lived with his father Elliott there, top cottage and its contents were sold in 1951, I can only hope a Roosevelt can remember the piece....
Elliott didn't recognize the cupboard, it's all up to the FDR library ,they have Daisy Suckleys photos....spoke with the sellers...they got the cupboard thirty minutes from Hyde Park, so it didn't travel far...what a pile of reading....
The lower height...it's a Val kill model 117, generally they are seven feet, FDR was in a wheelchair at Top Cottage, there's no free help in the USA when it comes to research....
There's the 1945 Top cottage inventory list..there's the spoon...can't tell me that ain't the sundial salt spoon....unfortunately Daisy sucked at describing the cupboard is what sitting on....