One of the greatest collections of Sir Winston Churchill memorabilia recently went under the hammer at Christie’s of London.  The collection was offered by the esteemed auction house on behalf of the Forbes family (yes the magazine) and was the first of three auctions.  The second auction will be held in December in New York and the third is scheduled for next summer in London.  I haven’t heard mention of what the other two auctions will offer, but it’s safe to say this was/is probably the best collection of Churchill items we’ll ever see offered.

Of course there were your standard items such as letters and wartime diary entries, but what had every cigar aficionado interested was the offering of a Cuban Camacho that Churchill himself gifted someone while vacationing in Monte Carlo in 1963.  The cigar was expected to fetch between $1,600 to $2,300, but when the hammer fell the final price was well over what they had estimated.  The cigar sold to an anonymous bidder for $3,126, probably one of the highest prices ever paid for a single cigar.  But considering it belonged to arguably the greatest cigar lover in history it was no surprise.

Since hearing of the cigar being auctioned I’ve been pondering a couple of thoughts.  One, the whole culture of passing cigars to fellow brothers of the leaf has definitely been in effect for a very long time.  Two, how did this cigar manage to change hands several times over the span of 47 years and never get smoked?  I guess one will never know, but I can safely say had it been gifted to me it would have met Mr. Flame a long time ago.  One can only hope that one day it is enjoyed as Sir Winston intended.

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