President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from Pierre Cartier: A Silver Presidential Cigar Box Mounted in Gold and Enamel, Cartier, New York, 1942

rectangular, the cover engraved with a map of Europe and Northern Africa with the major cities identified, Algeria applied in gold and enamel with flags of the US, France, and Great Britain, surrounding a gold lighthouse, gilt interior of the cover inscribed with the ending of Roosevelt's 7 November 1942 radio speech to the French people, with tri-part cedar lining

White House Inventory #455. The inventory has what appear to be pencil initials "ER" which suggest that this item was kept by Eleanor Roosevelt after the president's death.

A few tiny dings and light surface scratches, otherwise good condition.
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This box is part of a succession of Christmas gifts Pierre Cartier presented to Franklin D. Roosevelt. The box comemorates the landing of the Allied Forces in Northern Africa in the course of Operation Torch on 7 November, 1942. This operation marks a major turn in the course of WWII. Roosevelt addressed the French people in a radio speech that day to appeal for their support for the North African campaign ending with "Vive la France éternelle!"
The box is accompanied by a photocopy of Pierre Cartier's letter, dated 4 December, 1942, including the words "The touching appeal which you made to my countrymen and the fact that French troops are again fighting side by side with American and British armies, have raised very high the hopes of the people of France for their early liberation." Also accompanied by a photocopy of the President's reply, dated 2 February, 1943, including the statement:"I had it filled up immediately and have it on the desk in the study."
Pierre Cartier's gift to Roosevelt for the following Christmas was a mulit-time zone nephrite and onyx desk clock by Cartier, sold Sotheby's New York, 4 December, 2007, lot 226 for $ 1,609,000.