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Lot 255
Description:
[Mardi Gras] A New Orleans Carnival, Mistick Krewe of Comus 1884 Cup; together with 1884 Mistick Krewe of Comus Ball Invitation, designed by Charles Briton, "Illustrated Ireland"; accompanied by The Mistick Krewe: Chronicle of Comus and His Kin, by Perry Young, Carnival Press, 1931, signed and inscribed by the author.
- Provenance: Provenance: Collection of Henri Schindler. Exhibited in 1974 at The Historic New Orleans Collection exhibition of Carnival in the 1870s and 1880s and at the Louisiana State Museum's "Jewelry in the Golden Age." Reproduced in Henri Schindler's Mardi Gras Treasures: Jewelry of the Golden Age, Pelican Publishing Company, Gretna, 2006, pp. 16-7, and Henri Schindler's book Mardi Gras: New Orleans, Flammarion, Paris and New York, 1997, p. 72 ~ Note: By tradition Comus raises his bejeweled golden cup at the ball and symbolically ends the New Orleans Carnival season for the year. The 1884 Comus golden cup represents an important moment in the history of Mardi Gras as well as of the Lost Cause Movement in the South. Honored as special guests of Comus were daughters of the Confederate leadership, including General Robert E. Lee's daughters Mildred and Mary, Jefferson Davis' daughter Winnie, General Stonewall Jackson's daughter Julia and General D.H. Hill's daughter Nannie. Perry Young wrote in Mistick Krewe: Chronicles of Comus and his Kin about the occasion: On the right of the box was suspended a bugle of yellow chrysanthemums, violets, and verbenas, and on its red ribbon were the words To Stonewall Jackson's Daughter. On the center of the box was a sword of yellow chrysanthemums, camellias, and begonia vemista, with belt of silk Confederate colors and diamond buckle, its ribbon inscribed To Miss Mildred Lee. Arranged within the box were two other f oral tributes: A floral cup and cornucopia of jasmines, hyacinths, camellias, and pansies, was inscribed, To the President's Daughter. A pyramid basket of flowers, jasmines, hyacinths, lilies of the valley, rosebuds, camellias, and smilax was, To Miss Nannie Hill. As the "History of Ireland" themed tableau closed, Comus escorted Mildred Lee to the dance floor while other members of his court escorted the daughters of the Confederacy to join the first quadrille of the evening. As Perry Young writes, "From this date, from the five daughters of the Confederacy, begins the dynasty of Comus queens..." Mildred Lee was considered the first Queen and the various other daughters of the Confederacy the first maids of the Mistick Krewe of Comus. More than twenty years after the start of the Civil War, the concept of the Confederacy as a noble cause and the idea of its leadership as chivalrous lingered in the South.
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October 11, 2008 10:00 AM CDT
New Orleans, LA, US
Neal Auction Company
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