Beschreibung:

Sir Winston Churchill]. A George III style partner’s desk, 20th century, large mahogany desk, rectangular tooled leather top with mahogany crossbanding, three frieze drawers on either side, brass drop handles, two of the smaller drawers with wooden compartments, on four tapered supports with brass casters, 75cm (29.5ins) high x 168cm (66ins) wide x 96cm (37.75ins) deep. Provenance: From the collection of the actor and historian Robert Hardy. An authorised copy of Winston Churchill’s desk at Chartwell; the original can still be seen in the library there (illustrated in ‘Chartwell’, The National Trust, p.52). One of the central drawers has been inscribed by Robert Hardy: ‘This desk is a copy of that belonging to Winston Churchill at Chartwell and was made in the USA for Robert Hardy’. In the inscription Robert Hardy has emulated Churchill’s signature, an accomplishment not surprising for an actor who not only met Churchill as a young boy of eleven, but went on to play him no less than nine times: Attempting to play the great man - attempting to conquer that mountain - has undoubtedly been the greatest challenge of my acting career’. (1)