Six beautiful silk doilies given to a member of FDR’s inner circle, Toi Bachelder, by President Roosevelt as a gift in 1938, each measuring 6″ in diameter, colorfully embroidered with various Asian-themed designs, including two with village pagoda scenes and four with floral patterns. Includes the ANS on a White House card that President Roosevelt presented, signed “FDR,” in full: “For Toi, Belated news from Panama.” These are impressively mounted, matted, and framed together to an overall size of 20 x 30. Also includes a historic and richly detailed three-page letter of provenance from Bachelder on her personal letterhead, in part: “The six Chinese mats were given to me by President Roosevelt in 1938. In July of that year he had asked me to join him in Pensacola, Florida where he planned to disembark from the U. S. S. Houston on August fifth. I accompanied him, acting as his secretary, and the rest of the Presidential party back to Washington, D. C. via Warm Springs and Barnesville with a stop in Columbia, S. C. The purpose of the stops…was to make speeches in behalf of Democratic candidates in those states who were opposing the Democratic incumbent. At Barnesville he urged that Lawrence Camp be elected in opposition to Walter F. George, a long-time member of the United States Senate…On the way to Warm Springs the President told me that he had a present for me which he had purchased in Panama as the Houston traversed the Canal. I thanked him and kept waiting for my present. It came to my desk, in the White House loosely wrapped in white tissue paper a week or so before Christmas…The thoughtful President made sure by the informality of the loosely wrapped package and the wording of the card that I did not mistake it for my annual Christmas gift from him.” An imposing FDR display, personally presented to his trusted and beloved secretary.
