Father’s Day is one month from today. Over the course of four weeks, I’d like to present some “Handsome Gifts” suitable for Father’s Day gift-giving. Let’s start with this handsome pair of “T.R.” bookends from the early 20th Century.
As a boy, not much was expected of Theodore Roosevelt. He was a sickly child, more likely to be found indoors, reading, studying maps, or examining the bodies of dead insects and small animals—some of which he would mount in his so-called “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History.” Roosevelt’s personal and physical evolution was nothing short of miraculous: as a young man (and throughout his middle age) he developed into a paragon of virile, rough-and-tumble power and masculinity. A boxer and naval historian at Harvard, a cowboy in The Dakotas, a State Representative in Albany, the Police Commissioner of New York City, the Acting Secretary of the Navy during the Spanish-American War, then Governor of New York State, Vice-President of the United States, and, eventually, the 26th President of The United States. Throughout his life, Roosevelt embraced vigor, challenge and conflict—and created one of the most-storied of American political lives.
The bookends shown above are cast of bronze. The impressionistic bas relief sculpture is modeled after the work by sculptor G.M. Sander. They are among the most impressive bookends I’ve ever acquired—and certainly the nicest presidential bookends I’ve had the pleasure of finding.
More interesting Father’s Day gifts in the weeks to come.