President JFK's Famous Personal Long Johns w/COA - One of a Kind -Very Rare

President JFK's Famous Personal Long Johns w/COA - One of a Kind -Very Rare:
$280000.00

Authentic JFK

Personal Long John Underwear

This is one of two pairs of identical Duo-Fold Long John 100% woolen underwear belonging to President John F. Kennedy and sold to well-known memorabilia dealer and collector, Richard Wilson, at the Guernsey's 1998 Kennedy sale, Lot # 254. This is the other pair, the pair with the most wear, showing that he preferred and wore these much more frequently that the other pair. This was listed in Wilson's "Norma's Jeans" mail order catalog and purchased by us in a private sale in 2002. A copy of his original Certificate of Authenticity (COA) is included with the sale. The Famous Kennedy Long Johns: Because of the unusual nature of the item, "intimate and personal underwear" of one of our most beloved presidents, it made great great news over the years. The New York Post, in a 1998 article about the forthcoming Kennedy sale, photographed Richard Wilson himself holding up a pair of underwear, attracting a lot of readers. (A copy of this article is included with the sale.) The underwear was described as "a Pair of His Personal Wool Long John Underwear." The pair which was later sold by Heritage sales a few years later had the "Duofold" label and a second label with the "John F. Kennedy" ID sewn intothe collar. This pair had no real signs of wear on them, suggesting that they were a "spare" to ours and probably not worn much. Historical, Featured In The News: Kennedy's long john's had amazing and well-documented histories long before being saleed for the first time in 1998, having had many newspaper articles written about them over the years, starting in the 1970's. Our particular pair, bought specifically to be used with the famous dolls of The Great American Doll Company (GADCO), has accumulated a great deal of additional provenance because of what we did with them.
One of the first news pieces dealing with the underwear appeared in the June 12, 1979 edition of The National Enquirer. To paraphrase the article, it was only a year after Jackie’s 1953 wedding to JFK that she had gathered together many of her expensive wedding gifts that shedidn’t want to keep, nearly 100 pieces, and sold them to a Washington D.C. area dealer in antiques andcollectibles. Many of the items, especially the crystal and delicate glassware,were carefully wrapped in two pairs of her soon-to-be famous husband’s old longjohn woolen underwear. Jackie made no secret of her selling off these treasures,according to Jeannette Traten, the widow of the dealer who bought them. In an interview, shesaid, “If I were selling my wedding gifts, I’d want it kept a secret – but shedidn’t care. She impressed us as being a very cold-blooded type.” But whateverthe Tratens' personal feelings were about the purchase, they were happy with it sincenow, without having to conceal the famous source of the items, they could tellwould-be customers that these were from Jacqueline Kennedy herself. This reallyadded provenance and value, assuring the Traten family that they would havegood profits from this investment.

President JFK's Famous Personal Long Johns w/COA - One of a Kind -Very Rare:
$280000.00

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