Winston Churchill's Cigar, Letters and Other Items Fetch $848,000 at Auction

(June 2) -- Would anyone be expected to pay $3,111 for a Havana cigar in a box simply labeled "Hotel de Paris"? Well, someone did just that today, because it wasn't just any old cigar -- it was one that belonged to Winston Churchill that he never got around to smoking.

Initial estimates for the Cuban cigar by Camacho ranged from $1,500 to $2,200, according to the Christie's London auction company.

But someone was willing to go quite a bit higher to get their hands on part of a wide-ranging collection of Churchill memorabilia that was being sold off by New York publishing executive Steve Forbes.

This unsmoked Winston Churchill cigar fetched $3,111 at auction.

Christie's Images

Winston Churchill once owned this Havana cigar, which fetched $3,111 at auction.

The first part of the sale, which included a collection of letters and books described in a Christie's press release as the most important and comprehensive of items related to Britain's wartime leader, fetched a total of $848,000.

Perhaps the most moving highlight of today's auction was two letters, one to Churchill and the other one his reply, which commanded $51,264, way above the initial estimates of $1,500 to $1,750.

The letter to Churchill from his former assistant private secretary, Eliot Crawshay-Williams, pleaded with the prime minister to come to terms with Adolf Hitler. It was written in 1940, before the U.S. had joined the war.

"I'm all for winning this war if it can be done," the letter said, adding that "an informed view of the situation shows that we've really not got a practical chance of actual ultimate victory" and that "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."

Churchill's reply was bitingly brief and to the point.

"I am ashamed of you for writing such a letter. I return it to you -- to burn and forget."

The highest-priced item among 144 auctioned off today was a collection of speeches Churchill made in the House of Commons and in Manchester. An unidentified U.S. buyer paid $58,325.

The second part of the auction will take place in New York City in December, followed by the concluding sale in London next summer.