Unsmoked Churchill Cigar Fetches Thousands

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Jun 4th 2010 at 2:02AM

Sir Winston Churchill memorabilia was good for more than half a million pounds. A collection belonging to Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. went under the gavel at Christie's, with 84 lots finding new homes. One of them was an unsmoked Havana cigar, which sold for £2,125. It soundly beat the auction's presale estimate of £1,500.

Included with the cigar was a note from the prime minister to Christopher Dunn, with whom he was dining: "Sir Winston Churchill... gave me this cigar at Luncheon – Hotel de Paris [Monte Carlo]" 12 April '63."

Forbes developed this collection over 30 years, and it sold for a total of £577,063 ... and it's only the first of three auctions from this private collection. The ultimate total is expected to exceed £1 million.

Tags: auction, auction houses, auction-house, auctions, Christies, ChristiesAuction, ChristiesAuctionHouse, churchill, cigar, cigars, forbes, havana, Winston Churchill

Filed under: Cigars, Auctions

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Gianni Jun 5th 2010 3:44PM

You should mention that the cigar was a Camacho.

Fred Jun 4th 2010 7:11PM

Isnt the picture of a camacho cigar? Same band.

Paul Jun 8th 2010 8:00AM

One of the facts is wrong here, and my bet is that it's the picture. While Camacho was founded in the 1960s (so the 1963 date may be possible), they never produced cigars in Cuba (and that looks like a post 2004 band in the pic). I have enough faith in Christie's to believe they did their homework, so ihave to assume that either the picture is wrong (and the cigar was not a Camacho) or the description here is wrong and the cigar was not Cuban.

Paul Jun 9th 2010 11:25AM

I stand corrected. Camacho was indeed once a Cuban brand that was apparently discontinued at some point after the embargo. Camacho left Cuba in 1961 to begin the current incarnation of the company, but like many brands whose owners left after Castro took over, the Cuban version continued, at least for a little while. Very little information is readily available on the Cuban Camacho, but please accept my apology for incorrectly calling you out.