Dr. Mudd item on 'Pawn Stars'

[Rsmyth]

The following is from my relic notes:
William T. Clark also had the worsted coverlet but it soon disappeared, perhaps finally removed by the home’s owner. The red, white and blue Irish coverlet which covered Lincoln at the time of his death was last exhibited in Springfield, Illinois on the 50th anniversary of the President’s death. It then vanished.
In a letter, to his sister Ida, William Clark wrote; “Everybody has a great desire to obtain some memento from my room, so that whoever comes in has to be closely watched for fear they will steal something. I have a lock of Mr. Lincoln's hair, which I have had neatly framed ; also a piece of linen with a portion of his brain. The pillow and case upon which he lay when he died, and nearly all his wearing apparel, I intend to send to Robert Lincoln as soon as the funeral is over, as I consider him most justly entitled to them. The same mattress is on my bed, and the same coverlid covers me nightly that covered him while dying. Enclosed you will find a piece of lace Mrs. Lincoln wore on her head during the evening, and was dropped by her while entering my room to see her dying husband; it is worth keeping for its historical value. The cushions worked by Clara, and the cushion by you, you little dreamed would be so historically connected with such an event.”
A New York Times article dated Feb 9th 1913 references an 1881 piece written by Frank Carpenter for the American Press Association, that Fred Petersen has, in addition to two pillow cases stained with blood and clotted with brains, the bloodstained, Irish worsted coverlet. Fred was 16 at the time and said that Lincoln’s head was placed on one pillow case and then Secretary of War Edwin Stanton asked for another pillow case which Fred brought.
William Petersen, viewing the red, white and blue coverlet remembered how much his daughter, Louisa had loved it, He decided to put it away as soon as possible. William instructed his daughter “Pauline, take this comforter off the bed, and the pillowcases. People will be taking those away too.” Pauline took the items “downstairs.”
Robert Bain, the great, great, great grandson of William Petersen says the coverlet under which the President died was kept in the family and passed down until it was given to him. It is currently in Robert’s possession (2005) and his intention is to keep the relic in the family
In a May 1st 1865 letter from Elizabeth Dixon who had been summoned to the Petersen House to care for Mary Lincoln to her sister, Mrs. Dixon states “In a back room over a back building, on a common bedstead covered with an Army blanket and a colored woolen coverlet, lay stretched the murdered President,”
Two pictures of the coverlet exist in print. One can be seen on page 105 of Twenty Days by Dorothy Kunhardt and Philip Kunhardt JR and the other is featured on 34 of Lincoln’s Last Battleground by Petersen descendent Robert T. Bain. Even the casual observer can see the coverlets depicted in each picture are different. The Kunhardt’s say in Twenty Days that the coverlet was last displayed in Springfield, Illinois on the 50th anniversary (1915) of the assassination…then it disappeared. Thus far there is no explanation for the discrepancy.
There is some question as to the authenticity of the coverlet. At some point in the past Robert Bain put the item up for sale. The woman who was to purchase the relic had a financier who asked to have the coverlet authenticated. When informed it was to be authenticated, Bain backed out.

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Second Lt., 5th U.S. Artillery, W. Butler Beck received hand made gifts from Mudd while stationed in the Dry Tortugas from 1867 to 1876. I wonder if he received the lap top desk?