Description:

Kennedy Jacqueline

Jacqueline Kennedy Autographed note as fashionista, written for Joan Morse

 

Jacqueline Kennedy pens a lengthy hand written note on White House letterhead, to her personal assistant Mary Gallagher, 5" x 8".  Note near fine with a large check mark. Provenance: This piece came from the estate of Mary Gallagher, and will be accompanied by her signed and dated letter of authenticity.

 

A fantastic detailed note from Jacqueline, written during the second year in the White House, listing several requests of Mary as shown below:

 

"Mary

Can you call Joan Morse at a la Carte -

 

  1. Tell her I will be returning the ruby Indian bracelet
  2. Ask her if she knows yet how much the 2 elephant ones I looked at before leaving are
  3. Ask her how much is the statue of a tiger picture with her in Town + Country - what is it made of - what country is it from - is it antique -

Send me memo on all this"

 

With additional notes in Mary Gallagher's hand along the top identifying that the task was completed "Miss Morse spoke w/JBK on phone 9/6/62"

 

This wonderful association piece touches upon the unique relationship Jacqueline had with Joan Morse who owned the Manhattan boutique A La Carte. Jackie would read and clip fashion magazines and get advice from Diana Vreeland and her sister, Lee Radziwill, experimenting "with fashionable resources of the moment" which included  "A La Carte", one of her favorite boutiques. (The owner Joan Morse later became an Andy Warhol acolyte). This note shows Jackie in full throttle, juggling 4 different fashion interests in one go, from a ruby Indian bracelet, to a statue of a tiger. Joan Morse was also known to have designed clothes for Jacqueline, with one of her stunners currently on display in the JFK Presidential library and museum, a show stopping hot pink and gold organza and metallic brocaded silk evening dress and cape worn in 1962. (Image for review included with this listing)

 

Hamish Bowles, European editor-at-large of Vogue magazine noted. "Her profound influence on the way an entire generation wanted to look, drees, and behave cannot be overestimated. She set the standards that American women strove to follow and, on the world stage, provided a visual metaphor for the youth and promise of the Kennedy Administration," he observed. "Jacqueline Kennedy's personal style," the museum's press release argued "was a timely continuum, bridging the divide that then separated the old world from the new, the values of assured patrician elegance with the 'youthquake' of energy, dynamism, and forward-thinking modernity of the later 1960s. She emerges...as at once a paradigm of old-fashioned dignity, and an eternal cultural icon."

 

An scarce inside look at this one-woman fashion force in motion, Mary Gallagher was formerly the secretary to Senator John F. Kennedy, and Personal Secretary to Jacqueline over a period of 12 years. A wonderful piece with outstanding provenance.

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