John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s personally-owned and -worn off-white silk shorts from when he was a baby, patriotically trimmed in red with a light blue waistband, measuring 13.5 x 9, handsomely embroidered at the bottom of the left leg in blue thread, “JFK Jr.” Mounted against a light blue mat and framed to an overall size of 18.75 x 14.5. Includes a detailed letter of provenance on White House letterhead from Viola Wise, who served as a maid at the White House from 1939–1982, from the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelt through Ronald Reagan. In part: “The lovely silk shorts…were worn by John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., as a baby…I used to baby sit ‘John John’ and feed him in these silk shorts from time to time. At first he, like a lot of babies, was ‘ugly.’ I would hold him and say ‘John John you may be an ugly darlin baby but you are a millionaire and the President’s son too.’ It gave me joy to see the President lie on his back and hold ‘John John’ over his head and play with him. The President and Mrs. Kennedy gave me these silk shorts in the family quarters after ‘John John’ outgrew them. It was in the summer of 1963. Shortly thereafter the President was gone. It broke my heart. And I never held ‘John John’ or Caroline again after that.” A truly notable, unique relic from the first family of Camelot worthy of the most discriminating of Kennedy collectors.
