Set of Jewelry Presented to Mrs. General Grant by Browne & Spaulding. Advertising albumen CDV view. New York: E & H.T. Anthony, n.d. Publisher's imprint printed to mount verso. Modern pencil catalog identification to mount verso. Publisher's identification printed to mount recto, which reads: "The wood used in this set was cut from the Apple Tree under which Genl. Lee negotiated with Genl. Grant's Officers on the morning of his surrender, April 9th, 1865."

A view of jewelry on a plaque that was crafted and presented to Julia Dent Grant (1826-1902) by Browne & Spaulding jewelers. The material used to make the fine pieces is attributed to the apple tree under which General Lee and General Grant met to discuss the Confederate army's terms of surrender, marking the end of the Civil War. 

Despite the official surrender of the Confederate army taking place at the Appomattox Court House between General Grant, General Lee, and a few of their staff, it became a popular tale that Lee waited underneath an apple tree after the Battle of Appomattox to discuss terms of surrender with Grant. Perpetuated by a lithograph printed by artist Edward Valois that depicts the two generals meeting under a tree with onlooking soldiers observing the historic moment, this was entirely a fabrication. Nevertheless, it encouraged soldiers and other individuals to indiscriminately cut away bits of the apple trees and carve them into souvenirs of the historic moment. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards][Relics, Militaria][Civil War, Union, Confederate]