May 27, 2020 Founders & Patriots
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/27/2020
John Milton Wheeler (1796-1861) served as a corporal and later sergeant in Captan Henry Perlee's company of volunteers drawn from the 29th New York Regiment (Dutchess County) during the War of 1812 and post-war as sergeant major (1816), ensign and paymaster (1818) and captain (1822) in the same regiment. This grouping includes the "chapeau bras" or military bicorne with plume that he wore as a company grade officer from c. 1816-1820s. The hat is 15 1/2 inches long, with its rear fan 8 inches and its front fan 7 1/4 inches high. It is bound with 2 inch-wide, black silk ferret binding, approximately 1 inch wide showing on the outside. The hat retains its original cotton lining, which is approximately 4 inches wide and gathered at top. There is a silvered, copper alloy, flat "button of 5/8 inch diameter set 3/4 inch above the center bottom of the hat, with a cockade loop of 1/4 inch-wide, metallic/worsted lace (probably silver originally, but now a gold color), extending upward in a V from the button to the top of the front fan of the hat, the two ends spaced approximately 5 inches apart at that point. On the reverse of the front fan, centered in the V, is a flat socket of thin leather for the detachable plume. The plume itself is 17 inches long overall and is made of white feathers wrapped around a baleen stem with linen thread, the lower five inches clear.
Wheeler's hide-covered, wooden, portmanteau case is lined with War of 1812 era newspapers and is decorated with narrow strips of leather and patterned tack arrangements on the exterior, including his initials "JMW" within a diamond outline on the lid. The case is 24 in. L x 11 1/2 in. H x 12 1/2 in. wide, the profile oval shaped, but with a flattened base. The lid is hinged and there is a lock below and folding, brass carrying handles are on each end, affixed to kidney-shaped plates of the same. A Bristol board portfolio edged with green silk binding, 14 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches, contains Wheeler's partially-printed, folio appointment as "Captain in the 29th Regiment of Infantry", signed and dated by Governor Dewitt Clinton on April 13, 1822, along with a later commission and two War of 1812 era letters. Extensive post-war papers of Wheeler and his family, 1816-1860s, are also included, principally business records, land transfers and surveys, and some personal correspondence and ephemera. Also found in the portamanteau, with the above, is a 9 1/4 in. L wooden artist's box of the period, with three levels for storing pencils, pens, chalk, etc., accessed by slides or hinges and bearing the name "E. A. BASSETT inscribed on the underside. JLK
Condition: (Good - Very Good).