President Roosevelt’s personally-owned small pig and dog figurines, including one wooden pig with painted black-and-white eyes, measuring 1.5″ long, and two black dogs, one pug and one terrier, each measuring .75″ long. Includes two letters of provenance on White House letterhead from Lillian Rogers Parks, who was a housekeeper and seamstress at the White House for over 30 years, from Herbert Hoover through Dwight D. Eisenhower. One letter, in part: "This small black dog was owned by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The small dog represents Fala…given to me by Mrs. Roosevelt upon the death of the president…The President gained comfort from having his collection of dogs and pigs placed on his desk and bedroom mantel. I was the person entrusted with packing up the whole fragile kit and kaboodle of them each time his study was painted." Parks also mentions these items in her 1961 memoir My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, stating that Mrs. Roosevelt allowed the employees to take mementos after FDR's death, so she picked out her two favorite pigs and two favorite dogs from his collection. “Fala,” as mentioned in her letter, was the name of Roosevelt’s famous Scottish Terrier that was frequently seen by his side. There is significant FDR symbolism in these relics, as they capture a major part of his beloved animal collection kept on his Oval Office desk and on his mantel and dresser.
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