As the 50th anniversary celebrations of SirWinston Churchill’s state funeral have re-invigorated the interest in the latePrime Minister’s life and career, so too it appears to have amplified theclamour for memorabilia and artefacts that pertain to the notable figure inBritish and world history. This was clearly in evidence at an auction inWiltshire at the weekend, where riding on the nostalgia and popular acclaim ofthe moment a life-sized waxwork of the great man was sold for £6,500, as thesale was cleverly engineered to coincide with the anniversary.
The WiltshireAir Ambulance was also able to benefit from the event, as organisers allowedthe general public to take selfies alongside the waxworks (including the one ofChurchill) before the sale began, charging them £1 a picture for the privilege,to raise money for the worthy charity.
Organisers of the auction had estimated that the waxworkwould probably sell for something approaching the £7,000 mark, so the finalfigure may have been slightly disappointing, but nonetheless a reasonablereturn. Another lot that featured a Chelsea Pensioner wearing his traditionaluniform was sold for a hefty £1,500.
There were some characters that are clearly not in vogue atpresent though, reflecting the ever-changing mood of the British public onefeels, as the waxworks of Charlie Chaplin and King Henry VIII were not able tobe sold on the day.
The Churchill waxwork was formerly located at Yesterday’s World in Great Yarmouth,Norfolk, a museum that featured items relating to the Victorian era and early20th Century and had been open to the public since 2007. Churchill’swaxwork had been the first display that greeted visitors to the museum as theyentered the building.
When the museum closed in November, as there were noparties interested in taking it on as a going concern, the entire contents ofthe show were transported away, in anticipation of going under the hammer at sometime in the New Year. Their destination proved to be the sales room inChippenham, where the auction took place. The Churchill waxwork was part of acollection of 32 in total at the former Norfolk attraction that went up forsale, with more than one thousand lots being sold in total.
