LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Collection of Western History #680  / 

74109

Elizabeth Custer Engraved Silver Crumb Tray Set

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:1,800.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,500.00 USD
Elizabeth Custer Engraved Silver Crumb Tray Set
<B>ELIZABETH BACON CUSTER ENGRAVED SILVER CRUMB TRAY SET</B></I> - Scraper 11.25”, tray 8” wide, both pieces marked “MFD & PLATED / BY /REED & BARTON / TAUNTON, MASS. / PAT. APL'D FOR”, both are engraved with a script “E”. The flowing lines of the tray and scraper show elements of Art Nouveau design. The set is accompanied by a typed notecard “ Elizabeth B. Custer's Crumb Tray and Scraper with letter “E” engraved on each. Given to Mrs. Ben Hellenberg by Mrs. Claribell Custer Vivian, niece of Mrs. and Gen. Custer. 7-11-66 signed F. Frost”. Elizabeth Bacon Custer (1842-1933) was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer. After his death, she became an outspoken advocate for her husband's legacy. Custer's portrayal as a gallant fallen hero and the glory of <I>Custer's Last Stand</B></I> that were canons of American history for more than a century after his death was largely the result of her endless campaigning on his behalf. <BR>Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon was born in Monroe, Michigan in 1842, the daughter of a wealthy and influential judge. As the only one of the judge's children that would live to adulthood, her father doted on her. Elizabeth was both beautiful and intelligent, and her father hoped she would make a good marriage with a man from her own elevated social class. She met her future husband in 1862 in the midst of the American Civil War. She fell deeply in love with him but her father refused to allow them to get married. Custer was from a poor undistinguished family and the Judge hoped Libby would have better than the life of an army wife. After Custer was promoted to brevet brigadier general, Judge Bacon finally relented and they were married Iin 1864. <BR>Libbie and George had a loving but tumultuous relationship. Both were stubborn, opinionated, and ambitious. Their private correspondences were filled with sexually charged double entendres. Despite hardships, they were utterly devoted to each other. She followed him to every assignment, even during the latter days of the Civil War. The depth of their relationship has been the subject of considerable interest in books and film. After the war, he reverted from his rank of general and was assigned to a series of dreary and unsatisfying assignments in Texas, Kansas, and Dakota Territory as a Lieutenant Colonel. Life on the frontier outposts was difficult and Custer's career was plagued by problems (including a court martial brought about by his leaving the field to be with Libbie). <BR>After her husband's column was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, many in the press, United States Army, and government criticized Custer for blundering into a massacre. President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster. Fearing that her husband was to be made a scapegoat by history, Libbie launched a one woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. She began writing articles and making speaking engagements praising the glory of her martyred husband. Her three books, <I>Boots and Saddles</B></I> (1885), <I>Following the Guidon</B></I> (1890), and <I>Tenting on the Plains</B></I> (1893), were brilliant pieces of propaganda aimed at glorifying her dead husband's memory. Though generally considered to be largely factually accurate, they were clearly slanted in Custer's favor. Libbie remained utterly devoted to her husband and never remarried. She died in New York City a few days before her 92nd birthday. She was buried next to her husband at West Point. <B>Condition:</B></I>There is wear to the silver plate around the initial else very fine.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Miscellaneous Collectibles, Larg (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
Sign In to Bookmark Lot