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Home » Find an Item » Results List » Item Detail
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| Title |
[George Washington] |
| Number |
55226 |
| Size |
2.5" x 4.25" ea |
| Date |
n.d. |
| Place |
n.p. |
| Category |
Women in History |
| Price |
$10,500.00 |
Three Signed Carte-de-Visite Photographs! Mary Custis Lee’s portraits of her great grandmother Martha Washington and her step great grandfather George Washington with her signed descriptions of each on verso – and her own signed photograph presented to the wife of a Confederate General.
Mary Anna Custis was Martha Washington’s great granddaughter. She was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, son of John Parke Custis. Two years after John Parke Custis’ father, Daniel Parke Custis, died in 1757, his widowed mother, Martha Dandridge Custis, married George Washington. John Parke Curtis was 26 when he died in 1781.George and Martha Washington raised the two youngest of John’s four children, Nelly and George Washington Parke Custis. George Washington wrote in his will, in part, “I give and bequeath to George Washington Parke Custis, the Grandson of my wife, and my Ward...the tract I hold...in the vicinity of Alexandria, containing one thousd two hundred acres, more or less...” On this land on the Potomac River, G.W.P. Custis built a mansion he called Arlington House which was inherited, at his death in 1857, by Mary, his sole surviving child, who had married Robert E. Lee in 1831.
(1)George Washington. Carte-de-Visite Portrait of George Washington Signed “Mary Custis Lee” on verso. Hand-colored, 2.25” x 3.5” on 2.5” x 4.25” photographic mount. Lengthy description handwritten and signed by Mrs. Lee on verso: “George Washington / taken from an origi / nal portrait in the / provincial uniform / by Rembrandt Peale.” Colorful “Lee Gallery Photograph / 920 / Main St. / Richmond / Va.” photographer’s imprint on verso. Minor soiling. Fine condition.
(2) Martha Washington. Carte-de-Visite Portrait of Martha Washington Signed “Mary Custis Lee” (“Lee” light) on verso. Hand-colored, 2.25” x 3.5” on 2.5” x 4.25” photographic mount. Lengthy description handwritten and signed by Mrs. Lee on verso: “Martha Washington / from an original portrait / by [John] Woollaston that hung / first at Mt Vernon then / then at Arlington.” Colorful “Lee Gallery Photograph / 920 / Main St. / Richmond / Va.” photographer’s imprint on verso. Minor soiling. Fine condition.
(3) Mary Custis Lee. Carte-de-Visite Photograph Signed “Mary Custis Lee” on the image. Faintly hand-tinted sepia, 2.25” x 3.5” on 2.5” x 4.25” photographic mount, rounded edges. Minor surface flaws. “Miley Lexington, Ky” imprinted at lower edge. Pictorial photographer’s imprint on verso “M. Miley / Photographer / Lexington, / VA.” Minor flaw at lower right corner on verso. Presentation inscription from Mrs. Lee on verso, “Tinted for Mrs. E.P. Alexander / from her friend / Mary Custis Lee.” Mrs. Alexander was the wife of General Edward Porter Alexander, the Confederate officer in charge of the massive artillery bombardment preceding Pickett’s Charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Fine condition.
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