CHURCHILL | A cigarette case once owned by him, 1907

[CHURCHILL, SIR WINSTON]

Silver cigarette case

oblong (83 x 75mm), engine-turned with gold hinge thumb-piece and applied initials "JC" in monogram, produced for Alfred Clark of New Bond Street, 1907, PRESENTED BY CHURCHILL TO HIS DRIVER DURING HIS VISIT TO ALBERTA, CANADA, IN 1929

[with:] one vintage photograph and six modern prints of the car, driver, and local sights

"...I have been wonderfully received in Canada. Never in my whole life have I been welcomed with so much genuine interest & admiration as throughout this vast country..." (letter to Clementine Churchill, 27 August 1929)

Churchill spent several days in late August 1929 exploring and painting the magnificent landscapes of the Rockies in Western Alberta; his depiction of Lake Emerald was sold in these rooms in March 2018. He was accompanied by his son Randolph, his brother Jack and Jack's son Johnnie, and the trip, which took in a visit to the Prince of Wales's "EP" ranch, was a highlight of his three-month North American tour. Their Lincoln Touring Car was provided by Burns & Co. Ltd (a major meat-packing firm), as was its driver, Clarence Embury. Churchill gifted this item to Embury when he rejoined his railway car at Lake Louise. The cigarette case was manufactured for a fashionable Mayfair silversmith more than twenty years earlier and the initials "JC" suggest that it was originally commissioned by another family member, probably either his brother Jack or his mother, Jennie (d.1921), during the period of her marriage to George Cornwallis-West (1900-1914).

Embury's later recollections of his experiences were recorded by his family and include charming details of Churchill in holiday mood, buying himself a ten-gallon hat to ward off the hot sun in the open-top car, spotting chipmunks (or "jolly little chipwinks", as he called them), and, above all, relaxing into landscape painting:  

"We got a boat and I rowed him across Emerald lake [...] And he set up all his regalia over there and was “painting as it were” he had his little bottle with him, and he would take a sip and oh and then make a few more strokes - size the situation up - and this kept on going for about 3 hours. Then when he got all his sketches done, he didn’t detail them he just sketched them. And then by this time he had the bottle nearly empty, and a big long cigar. He’d take a couple puffs then a swig and a stroke. Another puff and a swig and a stroke. [...] He saved these corks and I thought to myself, little fella, you just shut your mouth and you listen and watch and see what he does with these corks. So he got his little pocket knife out of his vest pocket and was slicing these corks. He’d put a picture down put a cork in each corner and another picture down another cork and another picture and another cork and then he’d drive a nail right down through the corner. That was to keep them apart."

PROVENANCE:

Gift to Clarence T. Embury, 1929; thence by descent to the present owner

Please note: Condition 11 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers (Online Only) is not applicable to this lot.

To view shipping calculator, please click here