BY BILTMORE ('CARIBOO TRAIL'), FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY

Details

SIR WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL (1874-1965)
A STETSON
BY BILTMORE ('CARIBOO TRAIL'), FIRST HALF 20TH CENTURY
Stamped in gilt to inside band with the arms of Calgary, 'PRESENTED BY/ CITY OF CALGARY', 'CHURCHILL' and 'BILTMORE/ CARIBOO TRAIL'

Provenance

Presented to Sir Winston Spencer Churchill by the City of Calgary.
Presented by Sir Solly (later Lord) Zuckerman to Sir Edward Hallstrom of Willoughby, New South Wales, Australia.
Jerry Vitek, 1972 (bought at auction in rooms of F.R. Strange Pty Ltd, Sydney, August 1972).
Barry and Elza Briegel (sold to them by widow of Vitek); offered by them at auction, 1996.
Christie's, South Kensington, 3 June 2003, lot 12.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Lot Essay

Churchill is known to have visited Calgary in August 1929, and this may have been the occasion for the presentation of the hat; he was photographed apparently wearing this hat whilst painting at Roquebrune in 1957 (see, for example, Martin Gilbert, Churchill. A Life, Heinemann (1991), illustration 142, facing p.875). There is no indication of how Sir Solly Zuckerman acquired the hat: during World War II he was scientific adviser to the RAF Chief of Combined Operations, and to the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, and advised on the selective bombing of coastal defences preparatory to D-Day; in 1965 he was chief scientific advisor to the Secretary of State for Defence, and an advisor to the Cabinet Office.
This lot is sold with a copy letter from Hallstrom to Zuckerman asking for Sir Winston's hat, and a signed letter from Zuckerman to Hallstrom saying the hat had been sent by airmail to Australia.

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