A lock of hair - photo 1
A lock of hair - photo 2

A lock of hair

Lot 322
19.10.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 8 820
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1032981
Lot 322 | A lock of hair
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
(WASHINGTON, George (1732-1799) WASHINGTON, Martha (1731-1802)). WATSON, E[lkanah (1758-1842)]. The GOD Like WASHINGTON died 14th December 1799 all AMERICA in tears. The within is the best likeness I have seen. The hair is of his own head… [Poughkeepsie?: E. Waston, after 1 January 1810]. With a lock of hair believed to be from George and possibly Martha Washington.

Engraving, 150 x 125mm on woven paper with portrait of Washington after Joseph Wright on recto and titling on verso (lightly toned throughout, cleanly split at horizontal crease, two small soiled spots). In modern glass frame sealed with red white and blue ribbon also containing approximately 100 strands of hair. (Remnants of the former nineteenth century glass and ribbon housing additionally included.)

A lock of Washington's hair, presented by the Commander-in-Chief to fellow Mason Andrew Billings at Newburgh as he disbanded his army in 1783. A lock of hair accompanied by an engraving of a letter of provenance from the noted traveler, memoirist, banker, agriculturalist and canal promoter, Elkanah Watson. According to the engraved certificate, Watson received the hair lock from Andrew Billings (1743-1808) of Poughkeepsie. Billings, a noted silversmith, served an officer in the Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of captain in the 2nd New York Regiment, became personally associated with Washington in December 1782, when the Commander-in-Chief visited the Masonic Lodge in Poughkeepsie [1] In June, 1783, Washington wrote to Billings presenting him with a lock of his and Martha's hair: "Mrs. Washington sends you a lock of both our hair (Inclosed)." [2]

Based on a survey of secondary sources, it appears that at some point Billings divided the hair lock. One of them was given to Elkanah Watson, also a Mason, who had moved to Albany in 1789 where he was active in promoting a canal to connect the Hudson River with the Great Lakes. The exact circumstances of their meeting is unknown, but it is likely that Masonry was the common bond. Earlier in 1782, Watson, while working as a merchant in France had discovered Freemasonry there, and in 1782 commissioned a masonic Apron for Washington—believed to be the same apron he was purported to wear at the laying of the cornerstone of the United States Capitol building in 1783. In the engraved affidavit, Watson writes that engraved portrait of Washington on the reverse was "the best likeness [of Washington] I have seen. The hair is of his own head, this will increase its value with time[.] It is my earnest Request this may be preserved to Succeeding Generations[.] The hair was presented to me by Majr Billings Con. Army." Below this statement, Watson appears to offer a facsimile of a "Certificate" signed by Billings attesting that "…the within hair was Enclosed by Genl. Washington in a Letter to me dated Newburgh June 83 as his own hair." The date that appears to the immediate right of the last line of text and above Billing's signature, "Jany 1 1810" at first might be mistaken for the date of Billing's attestation. But considering that Billings died in 1808, it is more likely this was the date that Watson accomplished the statement for the present engraving.

From this point, the chain of provenance for the present example is unclear. It came into the consignor's possession from her late husband Francis W. Cresci who had received it as a gift from Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Cresci was a New York police detective who for a some time served as Lodge's security detail when he served as the United States Representative to the United Nations. Cresci went on to do the same for such notables as Dwight Eisenhower and Prince Rainer and Princess Grace of Monaco. Cresci would later serve as an official in Monaco's mission to the U.N. in New York. [3] How Lodge came into possession of the hairlock is unknown at present.

A similar presentation of a copy of this engraving and an accompanying lock of hair is mentioned to be in the possession of George I. Davis in the early 1880s who was also the owner of the letter from George Washington to Watson thanking him for the masonic apron.[4] That letter, with the portrait engraving and hair lock were loaned by the Grand Lodge of New York as part of a 1902 exhibition [5]. The whereabouts of that lock and print are currently unknown. Another lock appears to have remained in the Billings family, descended through Andrew Billing's daughter, Cordelia Billings Street (1781-1838) and from there descended to her son William Ingrahm Street (1807-1863) who presented it to the collector Thomas William Channing Moore in 1857. [6] The current whereabouts of this lock, which is presumed to include hair from both George and Martha Washington is unknown.

Rare. The location of other examples of Washington's hair that was presented to Andrew Billings is currently unknown and according to RBH, this is the first to come to auction. Two other examples of the print, but without an accompanying lock are known to have come to auction: one that appeared in the Lanier Washington sale (Anderson Galleries, 19 April 1917, lot 47), and another that appeared in a group lot of Washington prints in a Texas auction in 2021 (Igavel, New Brunfels, TX, 3 June 2021, lot 6004302. [6] Provenance: Andrew Billings (1743-1808) – to E. Watson (engraving) – Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902-1985) – (gift to) Francis W. Cresci — (inherited by) the consignor.

_______

[1] Solomon's Lodge Book, Poughkeepsie, New York, 27 December 1782 record's Washington's visit for the lodge's St. John the Evangelist celebration. https://gwmemorial.org/pages/george-washington-the-mason (accessed 17 September 2023).

[2] GW to Andrew Billings, 17 June 1783, quoted from Founders Early Access, the original at the Smithsonian. Interestingly, Washington also alludes to some instruments, "a small file or two; one of which to be very thin, so much so as to pass between the Teeth if occasion should require it."

[3] Frank Cresci, typescript biographical resume (enclosed with lot); Henry Cabot LODGE, Jr. (1902-1985) Four typed letters signed to Frank Cresci, New York and Washington, 15 December 1953, 14 February 1956, 17 August 1960, 23 April 1968; Carbon copy of Lodge to New York City Police Commissioner Monaghan, 14 December 1953 (Included with lot); Permanent Missions to the United Nations, No. 260. Marcy 1987, p. 271.


[4] Robert Bolton, The History of the Several Towns, Manors and Patents of the County of Westchester… New York: Charles F. Roper, 1881. 1:695. The letter is now property of the Grand Loge of New York's Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Library while the enclosing envelope is now part of the collections of Morristown National Historical Park. (See https://gwmemorial.org/blogs/library-collections/washingtons-letter-to-watson).

[5] Loan Exhibition of Washingtonia. Masonic Temple, Philadelphia, 5 November - 5 December 1902. (No. 289).

[6] "T. W. C. Moore and William I. Street, son of Henry Livingston's "good friend" Randall S. Street," Melvilliana, 3 April 2018. https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/04/t-w-c-moore-and-william-i-street-son-of.html (accessed 17 September 2023).
Artist:George Washington (1732 - 1799)
Place of origin:USA
Auction house category:All other types of objects
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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