Salver presented by Sir Winston Churchill to be auctioned in Shrewsbury
A silver salver presented by Sir Winston Churchill is to go under the hammer at Shrewsbury-based fine art auction house Halls next month.
Following the successful sale of letter signed by Churchill for £800 at the company’s militaria auction last week, Halls have been given a salver to sell at its pictures, silver and jewellery sale on March 18.
The engraved salver, which is accompanied by a note signed by Britain’s famous wartime Prime Minister, was presented in 1963 to P. W. Cox, retiring manager of Churchill’s Chartwell estate near Westerham, Kent. The note states: “With all good wishes Winston Churchill.”
“The salver is being sold by the granddaughter of Mr Cox who lives in Shrewsbury,” said Maryanne Lineker-Mobberley, head Halls’ silver and jewellery department. “We expect it to sell well at auction due to its provenance, the signed note that accompanies it and the fact that this year is the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death.”
The salver, which is hallmarked Carrington and Co, London 1961, is 31cms in diameter, weighs 28 ounces and is valued at up to £700.
Churchill, Prime Minister from 1940-‘45 and again from 1951-’55, is regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. He was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, writer and artist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
He and his wife Clementine bought Chartwell, their principal home, in 1922. When it became clear to the Churchills in 1946 that they could not afford to run the property, a consortium of wealthy businessmen purchased the estate.
For a nominal rent the couple were allowed to live there until they both died, at which point the property would be presented to the National Trust. When Churchill died on January 24, 1965, his widow decided to present Chartwell to the National Trust immediately
The letter sold last week by Halls was written by Churchill whilst serving as Minister of Munitions in January 1918 and congratulated a subordinate in his department on being recognised with a CBE towards the end of the First World War
The letter informed Henry Piggott, who received both the CBE and CB and was later knighted, that Churchill had recommended him to the Prime Minister for the award. At the time Piggott was Assistant Secretary of the Ministry.
