Garnet pin
Throughout the 1760s and 1770s Martha Washington amassed a large set of garnet jewelry for herself and her daughter, Martha Parke Custis. The assortment of necklaces, earrings, hair pins, rings, and shoe buckles must have been much admired as they were worn well after their initial purchase. Some of this jewelry was re-fashioned to reflect changing styles: for example, the head of the stick pin is believed to have originally served as an element of a pair of Martha Washington's earrings.
B: Purple velvet jewelry box with ivory velvet and satin interior. Box is for W-1874 A-649
Published ReferencesLousia E. Brouwer, "What Martha (Washington) Wore: The first First Lady's jewelry and the story of Susanna Passavant, retailer," Magazine Antiques 181/6 (November/December 2014): 130-133.
Carol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 265.
Martha Gandy Fales, "The Jewelry," Magazine Antiques 135/2 (February 1989): 516- 517.
Martha Gandy Fales, Jewelry in America: 1600-1900 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 1995), 37, 38.
John Parke Custis Upshur, will dated 9 July 1946, Curatorial File: W-1874, Curatorial File Room, MVLA.