I don't know if Russell Baker knew the historical accuracy of his statement years and years ago that fruitcake was the one food that could be classified as a family heirloom. He might have just perhaps been droll in his childhood memory of the unopened brick that annually arrived in December from crazy Aunt so-and-so who long ago moved away from the family and was living out west somewhere. Her fruitcake might have been seen more often than she was. I nearly missed the story. The Friday 'Anitiques' column in the NYT is not a required destination for me. However, I do like to turn every page and at least read the headings and sub-headings, look at the pictures, and take in the captions. Even then, a picture of a 127-year-old piece of Grover Cleveland's wedding cake in a Tiffany & Co. box nearly kept me moistening my thumb for the next page.
But then I saw something about 'no expiration date' and I could swear I saw the words 'fruitcake' in the text somewhere.
Hooked. A memorabilia dealer in Los Angeles has sold numerous cake portions, including a chunk of Queen Victoria's 1840 fruitcake for her wedding, at what is reported to be $50,000.
There are other descriptions of saved cake, fruitcake as well, but the 1840 vintage, well, you guessed it, takes the cake. Historically momentous cake winds up in a collector's hands, or even in museums. The nation's attic, The Smithsonian, has a 1934 piece of FDR's birthday cake.
The Smithsonian's curator, William L. Bird says that Americans like saving things, which should come as no surprise to anyone. And saving items from the noted and powerful give the benefactors the chance to let the rest of the hoarding Americans enjoy the item in a museum.
Also to add, the chance to challenge the IRS on charitable deductions.
Mr. Baker's immediate family may have been on to something quite early on. If only that aunt was Annie Oakley, or someone like that.
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