The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Friday, February 11, 2022

Civil War Auction Honors Abraham Lincoln-- Part 4: The President's Pocket Knife

At the 1864 Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia a gentleman presented Abraham Lincoln with a beautiful pocket knife with engravings on the blade.  This knife will be up for auction and will come with a letter from Lincoln thanking the man who presented him with it.

"So when you hold this knife in your hand, you're holding something that our 16th president held at one time," Curtis Linder if the auction house said.  "When someone buys something like this, it may not be seen for another 50 years.  You may never know."

Linder explained that some buyers may pass their collections on to their children and hey van get passed along from generation to generation without any public viewing.

Others may set up a private display for their local area.

"When someone wins something from our office, they take possession of it and then some people donate things to museums and other institutions while other people build their own museums," Linder explained.  "Mist people put it in their collection and they put it in a safety deposit box or they frame it and put it on the wall and they enjoy it that way."

--Old Secesh


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