Elaborately detailed bone china cigar casket produced in 1974 for the centenary of Winston S. Churchill's birth, complete with cedar lining and original presentation case, copy #316 of the limited edition, accompanied by the original limitation certificate.
Longton, Stoke-on-Trent: Paragon China, 1974. Limited Edition. This elaborate bone china cigar casket was produced in a limited edition of 500 in 1974 to commemorate the centenary of Winston S. Churchill’s birth. This is #316, complete with the cedar lining.
“One of the finest pieces commemorating the Churchill Centenary,” it is a magnificent production. Oblong in shape, it measures 10.75 x 7.75 x 4 inches (27.3 x 19.7 x 10.2 cm) and sits on four acanthus feet, the lid centered by the Churchill arms within a gilt laurel wreath on a cobalt blue ground, all edges gadrooned and having acanthus and shell mouldings. The sides feature depictions of Churchill’s beloved country home, Chartwell, the ancestral home where he was born, Blenheim Palace, and commemorative inscriptions, all with various gilt embellishments. The interior is cedar-lined with a full, fitted box and lid with a gilt, flower-shaped center handle. The inner dimensions of the cedar lining are 7.75 x 5 x 1.75 inches (19.7 x 12.7 x 4.5 cm)
Condition is clean, bright, and complete. The sole flaw noted is a hairline crack at the upper front side, beginning at the gilt lip of the casket 1.75 inches (4.4 cm) from the right corner and descending 2 inches (5.1 cm), from the lip to where the base begins to curve, and bisecting the gilt flower bracket to the right of "CHURCHILL". The crack appears stable and we have left it unrepaired. The balance of the piece shows no chips, cracks, or blemishes. Only the tips of the feet show a touch of color, ostensibly from contact with a shelf surface. The cedar lining and lid appear perfect. Laid into the cedar lining is the original, elaborate limitation card, printed in gilt and blue, with a gilt-rule border within singed edges. The limitation number “316” is stamped in black, the card signed by the Director of Paragon.
Of his eventually iconic association with cigars, and despite the fact that he inclined to chew on them more than he drew on them, Churchill wrote, in 1931, “How can I tell that the soothing influence of tobacco upon my nervous system may not have enabled me to comport myself with calm and with courtesy in some awkward personal encounter or negotiation, or carried me serenely through some critical hours of anxious waiting?”
“Churchill’s cigar became as great an icon as his V-sign. His daughter, Lady Soames, once remarked that sculptors and modelers had overdone her father’s addiction to cigars, but in her book, A Churchill Family Album… more than half of her selection of photographs of her father taken between 1940 and 1945 have him either smoking or holding a cigar.” The cigar became such an integral part of Churchill iconography that for his final political campaign in 1959 his poster was a simple, solid blue profile of his instantly recognizable countenance, with the inevitable cigar protruding.
The maker of this piece, the Paragon China Company, was a British manufacturer of bone china. Their eponymous product, Paragon China, was introduced by the Star China Co. in 1903. Such was the popularity of Paragon China that in 1919 the company changed its name in 1919, becoming The Paragon China Company. Beginning in the 1930s, Paragon was granted Royal Warrants of Appointment by several members of the British Royal family, eventually including Queen Elizabeth II. Ownership of Paragon eventually passed to Royal Doulton. As for Paragon’s signature product, bone china is the strongest material of the porcelain and china ceramics.
References: Wedgwood; thepotteries.org; Douglas Hall pp.50-51. Item #008111
Price: $750.00