Churchill, Winston, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. | A Christmas menu, signed by Churchill as Prime Minister

Churchill, Winston, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. 

Dinner menu of the "Officers' Mess 9 AAGp," signed by Churchill ("Winston S. Churchill") as Prime Minister, Roosevelt ("Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S.A."), son of the president, and others. [Athens, Greece: 24 December 1944]

1 page (to sight: 98 x 151 mm). Dinner menu printed in red and black, and signed on verso in pencil by Churchill and 11 others; some staining and a few stray spots. Matted, framed, and glazed with portrait of Churchill, and facsimile of the recto of the menu; not examined out of frame.  

A remarkable piece of Churchilliana, related to the Battle of the Bulge

Churchill signed the present menu shortly before he began his negotiations in Athens, Greece, where the government was finding it difficult to demobilize the Communist guerilla forces. In Churchill: A Life, Martin Gilbert writes that on 24 December 1944, Churchill "worked in bed all day, until five in the afternoon. The news from the battlefield [during the Battle of the Bulge] was of a successful German counter-attack into the Ardennes, with American troops driven back and surrounded. Then he was driven to Chequers, where his family had already gathered for Christmas. As soon as he arrived, however, he told Clementine he would not be staying for the Christmas celebrations; he would be flying to Athens instead. … On the morning of December 24 [Anthony] Eden offered to go in his place; after a long talk on the telephone, Eden agreed to go with him. … At two in the afternoon on Christmas Day, Churchill's Skymaster landed at Kalamaki airport near Athens." Churchill would leave Athens on 28 December without having brokered a truce. 

The card is also signed by Carmen Miranda, a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress, and film star.