The Passion of American Collectors: Property of Barbara and Ira Lipman | Highly Important Printed and Manuscript Americana

Flag: British Union Jack Flag, signed by Sir Winston Churchill

Auction Closed

April 14, 05:34 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Flag: British Union Jack Flag, signed by Sir Winston Churchill

Signed "Winston S. Churchill," as Prime Minister during World War II, on a calico label applied to a British Army Union Flag flown above General Brian Horrocks’s headquarters during the Allied Advance through Holland and into Germany, 1944–1945. The flag is composed of machine-stitched sections of red, white and blue woven wool.

Height 12 ft. by Width 6 ft. 3 in.

The Political Sale (Sotheby's London, 15 July 1998, lot 188)

Prime Minister Churchill made frequent visits to the British Army in Europe, more than once earning the ire of Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who felt he was exposing himself to too much risk. This signature was obtained and affixed to the General Horrocks’s XXX Corps headquarters flag during one of these visits. Horrocks had only recently returned to active duty after being severely wounded in an air raid while serving in North Africa. Horrocks was widely considered one of the most able of the British commanders, and Eisenhower considered him “the outstanding British general under Montgomery.”