July 2013 Auction Ends Tuesday, July 23rd, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/23/2013
Broadway legend Cole Porter's traveling poker and gambling set. In a brown alligator skin briefcase with internal wooden compartments, set includes various gambling-related games: (1) a roulette wheel and related green felt mat accompanied by a 1941 ''How to Play Roulette'' booklet printed by E.S. Lowe. (2) Set of five poker dice, each depicting ace, king, queen, jack, ten and nine. (3) 29 assorted plastic chess pieces in shades of dark grey and light tan. (4) Dice shaker cup wrapped in the same alligator skin as case and lined with green felt, measuring 2'' x 2.25''. (5) Miscellaneous items including a backgammon checker, a backgammon doubling cube, one die and a 16pp. ''Backgammon'' booklet printed again by E.S. Lowe in 1941. Case measures 15.25'' x 11'' with two gold latches, a brown leather handle and original key. Includes a notarized letter of provenance from a family friend of Cole's cousin, ''...I worked for Louis[e] Cole Schmitt one of the Heir’s to Cole Porter’s estate (Cole’s cousin) when I was in high school...I came across a box buried under some fishing supplies. It contained Cole Porter’s engraved backgammon set, some poker chips, a traveling gambling/game set...and a box with game pieces in it. She told me it was one of the many boxes from Cole’s estate...and she told me stories of how she and Cole would play on that backgammon set and gambling set and how they would bet pieces of candy as the winnings, many stories of how Cole and Montey [sic] Woolley would take her riding horses at the Cole family farm in Peru Indiana, and how Cole and Montey would act like teenagers gambling and drinking and acting a fool...'' Overall, near fine condition.
Cole Porter's Traveling Gambling & Game Set -- ''...Cole would play on that backgammon set and gambling set...like teenagers gambling and drinking and acting a fool...''
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