A magnifying glass used by Kennedy during his presidency, lucite handle and frame, handle embossed with maker's name 'STANLEY', diameter 40mm., brown leather case, with a typed letter signed from Evelyn Lincoln on White House stationery, 7 July 1993, confirming the provenance

Footnotes

A KENNEDY MEMENTO. Evelyn Lincoln, describing herself here as "Personal Secretary to our late President", relates how "This small magnifying glass... was carried by President John F. Kennedy in his coat pocket whenever he felt that he would need it during a meeting outside the Oval Office. Otherwise, he kept it in the top drawer of his desk, and that is where it was when his things were removed on the morning of November 23, 1963."

Provenance: John F. Kennedy; Evelyn Lincoln, retained after his assassination on 22 November 1963; Robert L. White, collector of JFK material and friend of Evelyn Lincoln, to whom her letter is addressed; presumably included in his sale, Guernsey's, New York, 15-21 December 2005. An article in the Baltimore Sun of 23 May 1996 records that White spent "countless hours of research [including] photographs showing each item in use. For example, to document the authenticity of a magnifying glass used by the president to read documents, White spent three days of research in Boston's Kennedy Presidential Library and found a photo of the object on Kennedy's coffee table."

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KENNEDY (JOHN FITZGERALD) A magnifying glass used by Kennedy during his presidency, with Evelyn Lincoln provenance

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