An auction of FDR's memorabilia

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When the country's largest private collection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorabilia goes up for auction this weekend in Dallas, one of the hottest lots will be a series of three watercolor sketches by artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff.FDR was sitting for a portrait in his vacation cottage in Georgia on April 12, 1945, when, to the painter's horror, he suddenly slumped forward in his chair. A short time later, the nation's 32nd president -- the only commander in chief in our nation's history to serve more than two terms -- lay dead of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63.Shoumatoff would use those progressively detailed watercolors, which captured Roosevelt in his naval cape and holding a scroll, to create the famous "Unfinished Portrait" that hangs in the Little White House museum in Warm Springs. The historic paintings, one of 568 lots being offered by Heritage Auction Galleries during the June 7 sale, would also serve as proof studies for a portrait of FDR that President Lyndon Johnson commissioned in 1967 for the White House.Your average Joe, however, will probably find Lot No. 53250 much more fascinating, if a bit macabre. It contains the monogrammed sheets from FDR's deathbed at the Little White House, which chief housekeeper Hoke Shipp had the fortitude to sock away until 1985, when they passed into a private collection. Minimum bid: $5,000."He was going to donate them to the Little White House, but they made him mad so he kept them," said Michael Riley, the auction house's chief cataloger and historian.Considering the country is in the middle of a presidential campaign, and PBS just aired a two-part series on FDR's life, interest in the sale is expected to be exceptionally high. Yet even in a non-election year, said Riley, Franklin Roosevelt memorabilia is a perennial favorite among collectors."Most people look at him as the person who got us out of the Great Depression and World War II," he noted. "He has just a unique place in American history."Auction items include hundreds of letters, photographs and pop-culture items from Roosevelt's life, both from his pre-presidential years and during his more than 12 years in office. They come from the private collection of Joseph and Deborah Plaud of Whitinsville, Mass. , who until recently ran the nonprofit Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center & Museum at Union Station in nearby Worcester.Shoumatoff's framed studies could sell for as much as $80,000 to $120,000, according to the gallery's Web site, while an archive of 47 signed checks from FDR's personal bank account during the last six months of his life, with the final check register, is estimated at $40,000 to $60,000.Many other pieces, though, will sell for substantially less. For instance, the president's trademark "Kings Ransom" fedora is estimated at $4,000 to $6,000, while a gold Tiffany wristwatch given to him on his 63rd birthday by five White House correspondents is valued at between $10,000 and $15,000. Eleanor's metal Bloomingdale's charge card in its original leather carrying case is expected to bring between $900 and $1,200.For more information on Heritage Auction Galleries' auction, call 1-800-872-6467 or visit www.HA.com/6001.(Gretchen McKay can be reached at gmckay(at)post-gazette.com. For more stories, visit scrippsnews.com.)