Two items from LBJ’s desk: a paperweight made by L. G. Balfour, 3 x 2 x 1.5, featuring a lovely white marble base adorned on top with golden hands clasped in a handshake; and a cylindrical brass postage stamp dispenser, measuring 2.5″ tall atop a 3″ diameter base. Includes a detailed letter of provenance on White House letterhead from the wife of Melvon O. Carter, who had worked on the White House maintenance crew from the time of Presidents Hoover through Nixon. During Mr. Carter’s over 40 years of White House service, he was often in close proximity to the first family and was called upon for a variety of tasks. In part: “These desk items were given to my husband by President Lyndon Johnson. One is a stamp dispenser and the other is a heavy paper weight…He was a generous and jovial man who often liked to give gifts or personal items to favored staff members. Since these were personal items of the President, they should be properly preserved.”
