Square linen handkerchief, wide handmade lace border, 14 1/8 x 14 1/4 in.

 

Provenance: Martha Washington; by descent to Martha Parke Custis Peter (1777-1854) granddaughter of Martha Washington; by descent to Britannia Wellington Peter (1815-1911) Martha Washington's great granddaughter; by descent to Walter Gibson Peter, Sr.; by descent to Mrs. Walter Peter Gibson, Jr. (her sale of Possessions of Martha and George Washington, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 8 November 1975); Ralph Geoffrey Newman (1911-1998) noted Abraham Lincoln scholar; by descent to present owner.

 

RARE: One of forty-one lots offered at Sotheby Parke Bernet on 8 November 1975 which were part of the so-called "Mount Vernon Collection" that descended in Mrs. Washington's family. Martha Washington's handkerchief was originally bequeathed to Martha Custis Peter, of Tudor Place in Georgetown (then in Maryland, now in Washington D.C.); it remained at Tudor Place until 1911, when it was bequeathed to Walter Gibson Peter Sr.