Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill Painting Up For Sale

Filed under: Art

Another of Winston Churchill's paintings has surfaced for sale. In addition to being Great Britain's Prime Minister and a writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature he was also a prolific painter. Rau Antiques is selling one of his early works, Pont du Gard, 1930. This painting was a gift to Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of Sir Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia.

Churchill took up painting in 1915 after the Dardanelles campaign in order to relax and destress. He focused on landscapes, seascapes and idyllic country scenes. Although he had no formal training, art became a dominating passion in his later years. He often gave the paintings away as gifts. Because there are so many of them they come up for auction fairly often and generally sell in the mid hundred thousands of dollars depending on size and subject matter. At Sotheby's earlier this month his Boat In Cannes Harbor sold for £253,250 beating an estimate of £120,000 to 180,000.

Many of Churchill's paintings are at Chartwell, his home which is now part of the National Trust. The rooms remain much as they were when he lived here and his paintings can be seen in his studio.

Tags: winston churchill, winston churchill painting

Star Spangled Banner Sells for Record Auction Price at Christie's

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

The Star Spangled Banner is on display at Christie's in New York. It will be sold by the auction house on December 3.

A rare first edition of America's national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, sold at auction today at Christie's for $506,500 (including the buyer's premium), setting a record price for any sheet music sold at auction. The pre-sale estimate for the lot was $200,000 to $300,000.

Composed by poet Francis Scott Key during the evening of September 13, 1814, the sheet music was offered as part of Christie's "Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana" sale at its headquarters at Rockefeller Plaza in New York.

According to Chris Coover, senior specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie's in New York, the buyer is an American private collector. "It shows what an icon of American patriotism the Star Spangled Banner really is," says Coover.

The sellers are two retired Pennsylvania antique dealers who bought the sheet music as part of an album in 1989 for $50. The dealers only later realized the significance of what was contained in the album.

According to Coover, there are only eleven copies still in existence, including this one, though, until recently, it wasn't well known that this one even existed. "It is the only one still in private hands with all others owned by institutions," says Coover. "It is quite a rarity."

Gallery: Star Spangled Banner

The Star Spangled Banner on view in Christie's NYC Gallery

A Close-Up View of The Star Spangled Banner.

A Close-Up View of The Star Spangled Banner at Christie's

The first edition of The Star Spangled Banner contains the mispelling of the word

Tags: antiques, auction, Christies, Francis Scott Key, rare documents, sheet music, star spangled banner, Steve Forbes, Winston Churchill

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Winston Churchill's Daimler Up for Auction

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

If Winston Churchill's dentures go for £40,000, how much is his car worth? We'll find out on Dec. 4 when the UK's Historics at Brooklands auctions off this gorgeous 1939 Daimler DB18 Drophead Coupé that the great statesmen used on several occasions before and after the Great War. The auction house has conservatively estimated it at £200,000 – £250,000, or about $325,000 – $400,000, but it could well fetch much more. One of only eight built and the only known surviving example, it comes with numerous photographs of Churchill perched on the rear seat. Finished in smashing silver over black coachwork with a contrasting three-position cabriolet hood in a rich chocolate, it has a luxurious dark green leather interior and wooden dashboard. It also features a full set of Jaeger LeCoultre instruments.

Gallery: Winston Churchill's Daimler

Tags: auction, celebrity cars, classic cars, Daimler, Historics at Brooklands, Jaeger LeCoultre, UK, Winston Churchill

The Classicist: The Ultimate Guide to Savile Row Style

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Books, Men's Style, The Classicist, Luxury Shopping

When James Sherwood's brilliant book on bespoke tailoring called The London Cut came out in 2007, to accompany a Savile Row exhibition at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, we regretted only that it was in softcover and such a small format. Now Rizzoli has rectified that with a suitably statuesque volume by Sherwood expanding on the subject, lavishly illustrated and encyclopedic in scope. Bespoke: The Men's Style of Savile Row begins with the opening of Henry Poole & Co. in 1806 and follows the illustrious history of London's custom tailoring tradition. Famous adherents of 'The Row' through the years from Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, the Duke of Windsor and Winston Churchill to latter-day dandies like Prince Charles, Mick Jagger and David Beckham are also discussed.

From its rather humble beginnings Sherwood discusses Savile Row's role in tailoring for the sporting set, the military and Royalty, the phenomenal influence the houses have had in the sartorial style of the silver screen - where else would James Bond get his threads? - the Row's evolution as "bespoke" was challenged by the mod rock & roll fashion revolution, and its embrace of fashion-forward newcomers like Tommy Nutter, Richard James and Ozwald Boateng, leading a revival of an art form that looked at one time to be doomed to obsolescence, now flourishing in its 200th year.

The style of each of the street's premier tailors is presented in detail along with the immeasurable impact Savile Row style has had on the work of international designers like Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, and Tom Ford, who contributed a foreword to the book. "English gentlemen's tailoring, and in particular the tailoring of Savile Row, really set the standard for the way the stylish 20th-century man dressed," Ford writes. "This English style, in fact, became the international style for well-dressed men all over the world, and this influence has not waned even in today's more casual world. I suppose that when it comes to men's clothes I am an Anglophile and if I did not design my own men's collection, I would have virtually my entire wardrobe made on Savile Row."

Gallery: Savile Row Bespoke

Tags: bespoke, books, Cary Grant, coffee table books, Duke of Windsor, England, Fred Astaire, Henry Poole Co., James Bond, James Sherwood, London, mens style, Ozwald Boateng, Prince Charles, Ralph Lauren, Rizzoli, Savile Row, Tom Ford, UK, Winston Churchill

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Historic Steam-Powered Superyacht Gets a $20 Million Price Cut

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Yachts & Sailing

Back in January when we reported that the SS Delphine (above), one of the last great private steamships of the 1920s, built for motorcar magnate Horace Dodge, was for sale at $70 million we assumed it would be snapped up right away. Now the astounding superyacht has been listed on global luxury marketplace JamesList for just $53 million, a price cut of nearly $20 million, making it a truly exceptional bargain. The listing also includes some great images of the classic craft which we've included in the gallery below. When the 257-ft. yacht was launched in 1921 Dodge had it fitted out with an interior by Tiffany & Co., acres of wood paneling and every conceivable luxury a gentleman could purchase.

She was pressed into service during World War II as the flagship for Admiral Ernest Joseph King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy. Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt are said to have met aboard her prior to convening the Yalta Conference with Stalin in 1945, but she was sadly allowed to rust away in subsequent years. A European clothing mogul had her fully restored to former glory, including the steam engines, several years ago at a cost of $60 million. Along with accommodations for 26 guests and 28 crew members, there's a music salon, cinema, fitness center, spa, sauna, smoking room, swimming pool and original fixtures like the telegraph machine in the mahogany pilothouse.

Gallery: SS Delphine

Tags: classic yacht, Delphine, JamesList, SS Delphine, superyacht, Tiffany, Tiffany Co., Winston Churchill, yacht

Sir Winston Churchill's Dentures Up For Sale

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

We've seen Winston Churchill's cigars (some of them half-smoked) sell for thousands of dollars so we have to wonder how much this latest item will bring. Paul Fraser Collectibles is selling a collection of Churchill memorabilia that includes a set of gold-plated dentures worn by Sir Winston Churchill. The dentures come with a copy of a photograph of Sir Winston Churchill being escorted to his car by Wallace Stewart Ross, his last dentist and there is a note from Churchill's private secretary addressed to Mr Stewart Ross: "Lady Churchill has asked me to send you this photograph which Sir Winston has signed for you."

There are four known sets of Churchill gold dentures. One set was buried with Churchill, a second set is held by the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The third set of dentures recently sold at auction for £17,480, however that set was a spare set that had never been worn by Sir Winston. The fourth set being sold here were worn by Sir Winston until a clasp broke and they were returned to the dental office. Paul Fraser Collectibles reports that the upper dentures were deliberately designed to be loose-fitting so that Churchill could keep the recognizable lisp that people were accustomed to hearing during his radio broadcast. Paul Fraser Collectibles is accepting offers around the £40,000 mark.

Tags: sir winston churchill, Winston Churchill

Escape and Immerse in Marrakech at La Mamounia

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Writing about Marrakech, the celebrated writer Elias Canetti said this: "in order to feel at home in a strange city, you need to have a secluded room, to which you have a certain title, and in which you can be alone when the tumult of new and incomprehensible voices becomes too great."

La Mamounia, the recently renovated historic luxury hotel of the Red City, makes for an excellent refuge. It achieves sanctuary, from sights and smells and other sensory assaults in a city where everything seems heightened.

But while some hotels in overwhelming destinations achieve this effect by essentially encasing guests in a blank box of international luxury blandness, the redesigned La Mamounia remains firmly planted in its location: you never forget you're in Morocco. You're inside the city walls and quite near to the Koutoubia mosque. You hear the muezzin issuing the call-to-prayer, but the rooms are equipped with sound canceling blinds allow you to more or less skip the 5 a.m. edition.
During the extensive three-year renovation which updated the hotel from what I heard described as "eighties-tastic", as many as 1,500 craftsman labored in a single day to create the intricate plasterwork, hand-tiling, painted ceilings and leather-tooling that tastefully embellish the property. It looks as if the Moorish details had always been there, but that's just a trick of the eye -- it's all brand new. The rather boxy shape of the hotel's exterior is a good reminder of this.

There's terrific people watching here-- the hotel has been and remains celeb magnet, hosting Winston Churchill in the way back when, and Sarah Jessica Parker more recently. (And that is perhaps the only reason those two will ever appear together in a sentence.) Its mostly European guests do tend to be those who think of themselves as celebrities, for instance, one gentleman who looked just a great deal like the guy from the Old Spice commercials, but wasn't, repeatedly doused himself with baby oil and induced the pool staff to take his photo, while a bikini'd woman did push-ups in the shallow end of the pool.

Presumably the real celebrities decamp to the hotels newly opened and totally private three bedroom riads, which have their own private pools.

Gallery: La Mamounia, Marrakech

Tags: la mamounia, marrakech, morocco, mosque, sarah jessica parker, Winston Churchill

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The Classicist: E. Tautz, A Sartorial Star Reborn on Savile Row

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel, Men's Style, The Classicist

E. Tautz & Sons, the venerable fine men's tailoring firm founded by Edward Tautz in London in 1867, has been resurrected by Savile Row's Norton & Sons to carry on its impeccable sartorial standards in a new century. Tautz began as a sporting tailor and introduced many innovations such as waterproof tweeds and knickerbocker breeches for the hunting set. By 1897 Tautz had been granted a Royal Warrant from the King of Italy, The King and Queen of Spain and The Emperor of Austria. Winston Churchill placed his first order with the firm in 1895 and continued to be a valued customer for the next 20 years; later on Tautz dressed such natty notables as David Niven and Cary Grant, and in 1968 the company was incorporated into the larger Savile Row firm of Norton & Sons and ceased to be a standalone label.

As Norton's owner Patrick Grant explained to Style Salvage, though quality on the level of Tautz's offerings doesn't come cheap, fine tailoring in the bespoke tradition pays for itself in the long run. "Tailoring is an incredibly efficient way of buying clothes cost wise and you really get what you pay for," he notes. "You are getting tremendous value for money if you go to a tailor and it just so happens that [Tautz is] in the middle of a community of the best tailors in the world. 'The only name in your suit should be your own' is the old adage and that is a nice way of thinking about it." Of course, custom made isn't for everyone, but Tautz is the next best thing as it shares many of the same tailoring methods with Norton's Savile Row workshops.

"We champion the notion of dressing properly and of men taking pride in what they wear," reads Tautz's mission statement. "We adhere to the age old belief that how you dress reflects your respect for the event and for your host. Edward VIII said it best. 'Be always well and suitably dressed for every conceivable occasion." FIne fabrics including the world's best wools and cashmere are a cornerstone of the Tautz style. Prices for Tautz's new ready-to-wear collection start at $300 for cotton sport shirts, $600 for knitwear, $1,500 for outerwear and $1,700 for sport coats. To begin with the collection will be sold in the U.S. exclusively through Barneys New York.

Gallery: The Return of E. Tautz

Tags: Barneys, Barneys New York, bespoke, Cary Grant, cashmere, David Niven, E. Tautz, E. Tautz Sons, hunting, London, Norton Sons, Royal Warrant, Savile Row, tailoring, Winston Churchill

Unsmoked Churchill Cigar Fetches Thousands

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars, Auctions

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.

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

Churchill Cigar Stub Found in Malta

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

Winston Churchill was rarely seen without a cigar, and his trips to Malta were no exception. So, it's unsurprising that the tiny nation's history is littered with the stubs of Britain's war-time leader. Just recently, one of them was discovered, attached to the glass frame of a photo of the prime minister.

The cigar was found by Wigi Ebejer, grandson of Gabriel Ebejer, secretary of what is now the San Gabriel Band Club. During WWII, he worked for the Demolition and Clearance Department, which cleaned up around the Clock Tower in Vittoriosa shortly after the war's end. He received the cigar stub from a man remembered as Mr. Nappa, who worked as a cook at the Governor's Palace. Nappa received it from Gabriel Debono, a messenger with business for Churchill. Debono used the smoked cigar as proof of his legitimacy.

There are several of Churchill's "empties" in Malta, and there is a market for them as collectibles. Prices can run from hundreds to thousands of euros.

Source

Tags: cigar, cigars, collectibles, malta, Winston Churchill

Dunhill Bladon Leather Collection

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Men's Style

For Spring / Summer 2010 London luxury goods firm Dunhill is debuting a new line of gentleman's heirloom luggage dubbed the Bladon Leather collection. With a nod to Dunhill's history of creating beautifully crafted and durable leather luggage for almost 120 years, the collection is made of tanned leather with a natural grained appearance crafted into timelessly elegant but always functional forms. Honouring the brand's esteemed British heritage, Bladon takes its name from the English town where Sir Winston Churchill is buried - a British icon who was a faithful customer of Dunhill. Each of the four styles in the Bladon collection are destined to become heirlooms, with the designs respecting every demand of the modern luxury traveller. The resilient vegetable tanned cowhide leather ensures each piece is individual, with every cut of hide presenting variations in marks and shades which will darken with age, taking on a soft and rich patina over the years.

Tags: Dunhill, leather, London, luggage, UK, Winston Churchill, WinstonChurchill

Used Cigar Sells for $7,000

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

The top luxury cigar brands can fetch $50 a stick or more, but that's usually for the whole thing. Like a car, the minute a cigar is used, it loses a good chunk of its value ... unless it's Winston Churchill who used it.

In 1941, a cigar smoked half way by British prime minister Winston Churchill was cast aside, only to be rescued by a member of his staff, who sent it to a friend. Like many of the cigars he smoked at the time, this one bore a personalized label, which continues to adorn the stick.

The unfinished -- probably unsmokable -- cigar brought in $7,000 in a recent sale, but there aren't many cigars that would sell for this amount. If you figure you'll be famous, though, maybe you should start tossing your butts into a plastic bag.

You never know ...

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Tags: churchill, cigar, cigars, smoking, Winston Churchill, WinstonChurchill

Famous 1920s Steam Yacht for Sale at $70 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Yachts & Sailing, Wealth

For $70 million you can be the proud new owner of the SS Delphine, one of the last great private steamships of the 1920s, built for motorcar magnate Horace Dodge. The 257-ft. yacht was launched in 1921, fitted out with an interior by Tiffany & Co. and every conceivable luxury a gentleman could wish for on the high seas. Constructed at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Michigan, she was pressed into service during World War II as the flagship for Admiral Ernest Joseph King, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy, and Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt are said to have met aboard her prior to convening the Yalta Conference with Stalin in 1945. In the decades following she fell into disrepair until a European clothing mogul had her fully restored to former glory, including the steam engines, several years ago at a cost of $60 million. Along with accommodations for 26 guests and 28 crew members, there's a music salon, cinema, fitness center, spa, sauna, smoking room, swimming pool and original fixtures like the telegraph machine in the mahogany pilothouse.

[via Duncan Quinn]

Tags: Delphine, Horace Dodge, HoraceDodge, Michigan, SS Delphine, SsDelphine, steamer, steamship, Tiffany, Tiffany Co., TiffanyCo., Winston Churchill, WinstonChurchill, yacht

Paris' Famed Hotel de Crillon for Sale at $420 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wealth

Paris' famed Hôtel de Crillon, one of the world's most luxurious hotels with a clientele of celebs and royalty, has been put up for sale by its American owner Starwood Capital for about $420 million. Constructed in 1758 as a government building commissioned by Louis XV, the palatial edifice (above) near the Champs Elysées on Place de la Concorde was converted into a hotel 100 years ago. Its Leonard Bernstein suite, on the top floor with a wrap-around terrace, features one of the late maestro's pianos.

Other luminaries past and present who have patronized the Crillon include Marie Antoinette, King George V, the Shah of Iran, Winston Churchill, FDR, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie O, Mariah Carey, Madonna and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The hotel is more likely to be sold to a high net-worth individual or a property investor rather than one of the large hotel chains, the Times of London reports. Starwood took over the Crillon in 2005 as part of its €2 billion acquisition of Taittinger's hotel and champagne empire.

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Tags: Elizabeth Taylor, ElizabethTaylor, hotel, Hotel de Crillon, HotelDeCrillon, Leonard Bernstein, LeonardBernstein, Paris, Taittinger, Winston Churchill, WinstonChurchill

Globe-Trotter Celebrates 110th Anniversary with Bulletproof Bag

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Globe-Trotter, the British luggage designer which since 1897 has furnished luxury carryalls for the likes of Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill, will soon add another formidable piece to its collection: a bulletproof case designed by Ross Lovegrove. Weighing in at under three pounds, it's the lightest rigid suitcase of its kind. Even before this news, Globe-Trotter was getting around: the luggage maker recently collaborated with J.Crew to craft limited edition pieces for its new luggage collection, and it showed up last year in the Conran Shop with a special rolling fashion statement.

The Lovegrove piece will make its debut during New York Fashion Week in September, posing from the windows at Moss. Until then, you can still get the perennial classic, the Centenary trolley suitcase in orange (designed by hand from Vulcan Fibre and lined in silk) at Moss for $1,580. The Lovegrove designed Air Cabin, by comparison, will retail for $3,500.

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Tags: bulletproof, centenary trolley suitcase, CentenaryTrolleySuitcase, conran shop, ConranShop, globetrotter, j.crew, luggage, moss, queen elizabeth, QueenElizabeth, ross lovegrove, RossLovegrove, travel, winston churchill, WinstonChurchill