Churchill memorabilia sold for £577,000

A huge private collection of memorabilia celebrating former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, from revealing political letters to an unsmoked cigar, sold for almost £600,000 yesterday.

Described as "the most important and comprehensive private collection of letters and books related to Winston Churchill ever assembled", the items realised £577,063 in total.

Stars of the sale included two letters which sold for more than four times their estimate, which show how the great statesman told his former assistant private secretary to burn a letter suggesting a truce with the Germans.

In 1940, Eliot Crawshaw-Williams wrote to Churchill pleading that he agree terms with Hitler.

He wrote: "I'm all for winning this war if it can be done... But it does seem to me, and, I know to others, that 'if and when' an informed view of the situation shows that we've really not got a practical chance of actual ultimate victory, no questions of prestige should stand in the way of our using our nuisance value while we have one to get the best peace terms possible.

"Otherwise, after losing many lives and much money, we shall merely find ourselves in the position of France - or much worse.

"I hope this doesn't sound defeatist; I'm not that. Only realist."

Sir Winston's brief response was: "I am ashamed of you for writing such a letter.

"I return it to you - to burn and forget."

The two letters were offered together with an estimate of £6,000 to £8,000 - and were sold to a private UK buyer for £34,850.

An unsmoked Havana cigar offered in a box also beat its estimate of £1,000-£1,500 to fetch £2,125.

Auction house Christie's, which sold the collection in London, has described the material as the most important and wide-ranging collection of its kind, shedding fresh light on the wartime leader who often tops "greatest Prime Minister" polls.

The collection was amassed over more than 30 years by Forbes Inc chief executive officer Malcolm S Forbes Jr, grandson of Forbes magazine founder BC Forbes.

It is being sold in three parts; the first today, with a second in New York on December 3, and a third in London in summer 2011.

The top lot was a collection of Churchill's free trade speeches, delivered in Manchester or in the House of Commons.