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CHURCHILL’S WARTIME LETTER TO THE NFU GOES UP FOR AUCTION
28th NOVEMBER 2011
A typed letter signed by Britain’s wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill is expected to fetch up to £600 when it goes under the hammer at a leading Shropshire fine art auction house on December 7.
The letter, dated 14th October, 1940 and addressed to the President of the National Farmers’ Union, Bedford Square WC 1, refers to agricultural price levels, food production and the impact of the Second World War.
It states: “I need not tell you that the food production of our country is, at this hour of supreme crisis, one of the vital factors in our ability to resist and overcome a formidable enemy…”
Each page of the three-piece letter is mounted with the Prime Minister’s crest and address. Although the envelope is dated 17th September, a month prior to the date of the letter, experts at Halls believe it to be a mistake in the franking office on the day.
The letter has been consigned to Halls’ 585-lot Christmas collective auction at the Welsh Bridge saleroom in Shrewsbury, which also includes an album of signatures, valued a up to £500.
The album includes a letter signed and possibly written by Lafayette dated 13th July 1785, a personal letter by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-’98), better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll and a letter by John Ruskin dated 3rd Dec 86. Other signatures include the Duke of Wellington, Robert Browning, Robert Peel and Sir Moses Montefiore.
Two 19th century volumes of ballads and narrative poems and a sonnets and lyrical poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) are valued at up to £900.
The auction also includes a lady’s lifetime’s collection of bijouterie valued at up to £5,000. The collection includes a pair of late 18th century French gold scissors, valued at up to £500 together with novelty pincushions, fine needlework, treen and mother of pearl items.
Potential stars of the silver section are two canteens of cutlery, which are valued at up to £2,000 each, while the jewellery section has a selection of potential Christmas gifts with rings, pendants and bracelets at up to £1,800.
The ceramics section features a lifetime’s collection of royal commemorative wares together with a 12-lot collection of 20th century Royal Doulton jugs, the most valuable of which is expected to be the Phantom of the Opera at up to £200.
A pair of 19th century French tile panels attributed to Marc Louis Solon is valued at up to £300, a pair of porcelain Caverswall campana urns and covers carries a £400 estimate and a 20th century Russian green glass Easter egg is expected to fetch up to £180.
In the Oriental section, 11 lots of 18th century Chinese export porcelain salvaged from the Ca Mau shipwreck off Vietnam are expected to fetch between £350 and £700 each, while a Chinese famille rose porcelain vase is valued at up to £600.
Other interesting lots include a Japanese lacquered low writing table from the Meiji period at up to £1,500 and a pair of stripped hardwood Chinese display stands and a dark patinated hardwood Chinese cabinet on stand, each valued at up to £2,000.
For more information about the auction, contact Halls on Tel: 01743 284777. The Welsh Bridge saleroom will be open for viewing on Monday, December 5 from 9.30am to 8pm, Tuesday rpm 9.30am to 4.30pm and on the morning of the auction, which starts at 11am.
Lot 466: The wartime letter signed by Sir Winston Churchill.
