STEPPING INTO CHURCHILL’S SLIPPERS FOR £32,000

The personal belongings of historically important !gures continue to be a major draw at auction. And the latest items to be snapped up for signi !cant sums by collectors were a brandy glass and evening slippers belonging to Sir Winston Churchill.

The brandy balloon and midnight-blue velvet slippers, both of which are monogrammed with the gilded initials WSC, sparked a "urry of interest when they were offered for auction by Bellmans in early March.

Trouncing their pre-sale estimate of £10,000 to £15,000, the hammer went down at £32,000 on the war-time prime minister’s footwear.

The winning bid was made by a private UK collector. The brandy balloon, meanwhile, went to a telephone bidder from the UK, who paid £15,000 (plus buyer’s premium) a $er outbidding keen collectors from the USA.

‘Sir Winston Churchill is still highly regarded around the world and we had considerable interest from both the media and buyers that re"ect that,’ says Julian Dineen, auctioneer on the night. This was only the second time that the highly personal and quintessentially Churchillian items had been o#ered for sale. The seller had acquired them directly from the family when they were sold in Sotheby’s Political Sale in London on 15th July 1998. ‘Although I am sad to part with them now, I hope that they will be bought by someone who cherishes them as much as I did,’ the seller commented before the sale. ‘ I o$en imagined the great man si%ing in his chair with these slippers on and this very glass ! lled with brandy in his hand. You can’t really beat that.’ bellmans.co.uk