WAR DIARIES AND CIGAR LIGHT UP WINSTON CHURCHILL AUCTIONBEN HOYLE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT
Times Online
May 7, 2010
Instead, his dedication in a copy of Arms and the Covenant in October
1938 is short, effusive and loaded with irony apparent only with
hindsight: "To Guy Burgess, from Winston S Churchill, to confirm his
admirable sentiments."
The inscription offers a tantalising glimpse of the encounter
between one of Britain’s most notorious KGB spies and one of its
greatest heroes. It is part of an extraordinary cache of Churchilliana
amassed over 30 years by Steve Forbes, the US publishing magnate and
politician, which is to be broken up and sold by Christie’s in three
separate sales in London and New York over the next year.
Mr Forbes said that Churchill had been his hero "from the beginning
of my consciousness". Christie’s described it as "the most important
and comprehensive private collection of letters and books related to
Winston Churchill ever assembled".
The three sales are expected to attract between £3 million and
£5 million.
The first-edition volume of speeches dedicated to Burgess after an
afternoon interview has an estimate of between £12,000 and £18,000
at the first sale in London next month.
It will be one of around 150 lots, ranging from a baby photo from 1875
to an unsmoked Cuban cigar given to a guest at the Hotel Bristol in
Monte Carlo in 1963.
Thomas Venning, director of books and manuscripts at Christie’s London,
said: "Sometimes you work on a collection like this and by the time
you are finished with the catalogue you are sick of the sight of it,"
he said. "With this it got more and more fun. You get to see Churchill
as the extraordinary, eccentric, wildly enthusiastic, brilliant person
he was."
Mr Venning’s favourites are a letter from India in 1896 — where
Churchill responds to Turkish massacres of Armenians by suggesting
that the Russians take over Constantinople — and photographs from
the war showing him wearing "zip-up shoes".
"It is a reminder he was a very, very unusual person. British
20th-century politicians on the whole didn’t wear bow ties, they
didn’t smoke Cuban cigars all the time, they didn’t take a daily
siesta and they did not wear zip-up clothes," he said.
Other lots include a minute where Churchill refers to North Palestine
as "this worthless country", and a letter to a cousin in 1902 that
could imply a visit to a brothel. "I cannot remember the address of
Sunny’s friend, & I shall feel inclined to pay her a visit, so will
you write without fail a discreet letter . . . with the necessary
information."
The biggest draw is likely to be Churchill’s engagement diary for the
Second World War, priced at between £80,000 and £120,000. Thirty
engagement cards written by private secretaries give details of his
appointments from September 1939 to June 1945.
The catalogue said that they were "probably the most important
surviving source for Churchill’s daily activities during World War II".
The diary shows how Churchill established Tuesday lunch meetings
with the king and details his occasional moments of relaxation:
"Football match — Wembley Stadium 3.0pm" on October 4, 1941. A trip
to see Arsenic and Old Lace at the theatre and weekends at Chequers
with the heads of governments in exile.
The card for January 1943 includes the Casablanca conference with
President Roosevelt and Charles de Gaulle. The US President and his
wartime emissary Harry Hopkins are referred to under the codenames
"Don Q[uixote]" and "S[ancho] P[anza]".
After late-night meetings and long lunches Churchill and Don Quixote
leave for Marrakesh, stopping for a "picnic on way".