Civil War Officer's Ivory Pocket Diary (SOLD)

This is another great piece being offered, it is a Civil War Officer’s Ivory Pocket Diary. It measures 3 ½” x 1 ¾” and has six pages of natural ivory (Monday through Saturday). Being that Sunday was a day of rest, that page was always left out. The inner pages are protected with a thicker ivory outer page cover at front and back. Outer cover has a 3/4” high, silver shield device pinned to the exterior surface along with a silver clasp and hinged hook pinned at the upper edge of the diary.

Daily entries were made upon the appropriate flat hard slabs of ivory, usually with a lead pencil and could be easily erased when no longer needed; no inscriptions on the diary. There is an example of this diary in The Civil War Collector’s Encyclopedia, by Francis Lord and I also used my personal one in my recent book “The Civil War Soldier – His Personal Items” (see pictures).

I’ve had a few of these over the past 25+ years, but this is absolutely the nicest I ever came across…..even tempted to replace mine with it. Most of these diaries were smaller but this one is larger than most and would be more practical for entries. The ivory has aged beautifully and this example is the first I’ve seen where the pages only come out of one side, the other side is an extension of the front cover – this must have been very difficult for the carver. (SOLD)