$1,600
Estimate: $800 - $1,200
American Furniture, Decorative & Folk Art
Auction: April 19, 2016 11:00:00 AM EDT
A typed paper note affixed to underside of table top reads, "Table provided for the Library by Miss Longfellow. Removed to the Quarters by order of the Regent," February 28, 1928.
H: 28 3/4 in. Diam: 44 3/4 in.Provenance: Property Deaccessioned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
According to the 1887 minutes, "This piece was presented by Miss Alice Longfellow, Vice Regent for Massachusetts, for use in Washington's Library."
Alice Mary Longfellow (1850-1928)
A daughter of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Fanny Appleton, "Grave Alice" of The Children's Hour, Miss Alice Mary Longfellow lived her entire life at 105 Brattle Street, Craigie House (now the National Historic Site Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was appointed Vice Regent for Massachusetts of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association at the age of 29 and served for a record 48 years in that position. Longfellow purchased many items for Mount Vernon, including Washington's secretary bookcase and numerous rare books in an effort to reconstruct the President's personal library. A tireless fund raiser, lecturer, and philanthropist for historic preservation and education, Longfellow was a founding member of Radcliffe College, and a supporter of Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes. She led the effort to make her family home, Craigie House, used from July 1775 to April 1776 as General George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters, a historic site.