NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A set of small binoculars believed to have been used by President Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated in a Washington theater are now the latest prized possession of a New Orleans antique gallery.
The black enameled opera glasses were recently acquired by M.S. Rau Antiques, a shop on the French Quarter's Royal Street. Third-generation owner Bill Rau says the price is set at $795,000.
The opera glasses are said to have fallen from the mortally wounded Lincoln's body as he was carried from Ford's Theatre in 1865. A captain with the Washington City Guard picked them up from the street. They were handed down in his family for generations before being matched in 1968 to a case found in the balcony after Lincoln was shot.
