CHURCHILL (WINSTON S.)Two typed letters signed ("Yours sincerely/ Winston S. Churchill") to Lady Aberconway ("My dear Lady Aberconway", "Dear Lady Aberconway"), the first thanking her for her letter regarding her forthcoming Dictionary of Cat Lovers, but regretting he is unable to help her ("...I have never made a painting or a drawing of a cat, although I am very fond of them...") and wishing her every success; the second giving permission for "...some very beautiful black and white studies of my yellow cat, drawn by Sir William Nicholson .." to be reproduced, 2 pages, filing hole to top left hand side of each, slight spotting and dust-staining, creased at folds, one small tear, 4to (240 x 190mm.), Chartwell and 28 Hyde Park Gate, 3 and 9 March 1949 (2)Footnotes'I HAVE NEVER MADE A DRAWING OF A CAT, ALTHOUGH I AM VERY FOND OF THEM'.
Churchill was a life-long cat lover and shared Downing Street and Chartwell with a number of notable felines (their stories are told in Fred Glueckstein's article 'Cats Look Down on You: Churchill's Feline Menagerie', winstonchurchill.org). The artist William Nicholson was commissioned to paint a (now lost) portrait of the Churchills at Chartwell in 1933 and was subsequently a frequent visitor to Chartwell in the years that followed, during which time he taught Churchill to paint and made several studies of Churchill's cat Tango. Tango also appears in Nicholson's the Study for Breakfast at Chartwell II, where he is shown siting on the breakfast table. Churchill's private secretary John 'Jock' Colville presented him with a marmalade cat, Jock, on his eighty-eighth birthday, and the tradition of marmalade cats residing at Chartwell continues to this day.
Christabel Aberconway's A Dictionary of Cat Lovers, XV Century B.C. to XX Century A.D. was published in 1949 by Michael Joseph, who himself was a keen felinophile (it is said he had fourteen at one time). The following year he published his own homage to the species Cat's Company.
Provenance: Michael Joseph (1897-1958) publisher; thence by descent to the present owner.
CHURCHILL (WINSTON S.)Two typed letters signed ("Yours sincerely/ Winston S. Churchill") to Lady Aberconway ("My dear Lady Aberconway", "Dear Lady Aberconway"), the first thanking her for her letter regarding her forthcoming Dictionary of Cat Lovers, but regretting he is unable to help her ("...I have never made a painting or a drawing of a cat, although I am very fond of them...") and wishing her every success; the second giving permission for "...some very beautiful black and white studies of my yellow cat, drawn by Sir William Nicholson .." to be reproduced, 2 pages, filing hole to top left hand side of each, slight spotting and dust-staining, creased at folds, one small tear, 4to (240 x 190mm.), Chartwell and 28 Hyde Park Gate, 3 and 9 March 1949 (2)Footnotes'I HAVE NEVER MADE A DRAWING OF A CAT, ALTHOUGH I AM VERY FOND OF THEM'.
Churchill was a life-long cat lover and shared Downing Street and Chartwell with a number of notable felines (their stories are told in Fred Glueckstein's article 'Cats Look Down on You: Churchill's Feline Menagerie', winstonchurchill.org). The artist William Nicholson was commissioned to paint a (now lost) portrait of the Churchills at Chartwell in 1933 and was subsequently a frequent visitor to Chartwell in the years that followed, during which time he taught Churchill to paint and made several studies of Churchill's cat Tango. Tango also appears in Nicholson's the Study for Breakfast at Chartwell II, where he is shown siting on the breakfast table. Churchill's private secretary John 'Jock' Colville presented him with a marmalade cat, Jock, on his eighty-eighth birthday, and the tradition of marmalade cats residing at Chartwell continues to this day.
Christabel Aberconway's A Dictionary of Cat Lovers, XV Century B.C. to XX Century A.D. was published in 1949 by Michael Joseph, who himself was a keen felinophile (it is said he had fourteen at one time). The following year he published his own homage to the species Cat's Company.
Provenance: Michael Joseph (1897-1958) publisher; thence by descent to the present owner.
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
