May 7, 2015

Finest Hour 117, Winter 2002-03

Page 37

By Laurence Geller

The Book of Churchilliana, by Douglas Hall. New Cavendish Books, 196 pp. $45, member price $34

Douglas Hall’s unabashed passion for Churchill shines through every page of this colorful coffee table book, which takes on an ever growing and multi-faceted topic. “Churchilliana,” says the author, is a word coined to describe “a collection of places and objects relating to Winston Churchill.” With this description and the grandeur of the title, he sets himself a monumental task. The title alone will temptingly lure the avid or casual collector of Churchill memorabilia to open its pages hungrily, in eager anticipation of finding the definitive authority.

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Indeed this book offers the most comprehensive guide yet to Churchill collectibles which, to quote the author, “range from the sublime to the ridiculous and embrace a glorious assortment of the good, bad and the ugly.” Although well organized in general, it is sometimes hard for the reader to find the narrative which accompanies the excellent myriad photos. While some descriptions are thorough, others are sparse. For example, a page and a half is devoted to WSC’s books, and there is no entry at all for books about him: a difficult subject to treat when whole books have been devoted to it. There is something on medals, but nothing on Churchill’s medals, which many collect.

The decision to include notes on price and value of “ephemera” like the toby jugs, printed items, and commemorative souvenirs which most interest collectors is, as the author says, a difficult one: Prices change, and vary from place to place; yet an ever-increasing audience of collectors needs points of reference. But relatively few of the collectibles shown in the nearly two hundred pages have information to help value a collection, to know what to pay, or where to go for honest advice.

People who expected a veritable catalogue, minutely describing and picturing the many variants of the objects, will be disappointed. Clearly this was not the intent of the book, and perhaps such a catalogue is beyond the scope of commercial publishers. With Hall’s immense wealth of knowledge, one hopes he can find a way of expanding and updating this information. If he can achieve that worthy goal it would encourage current or would-be collectors and prompt the more timid to start on a lifetime’s journey of collecting without the suspicion of having overpaid.

Per the author’s definition, the book includes places and objects with which Winston Churchill was associated. These range widely from Admiralty House to Westminster Abbey, from railway locomotives to the Royal Air Force Memorial Flight, from objects as small as a thimble to as large as the USS Winston S. Churchill. The untutored reader may be left hungering for more knowledge about certain places or objects, while the more knowledgeable may feel shortchanged by the brevity of some sections and the serious collector might perhaps feel these interludes are a distraction in the search for detailed knowledge.

Yet the book offers delights for every level of interest, even the merely curious. In its pages are treasure troves of information, which will no doubt whet the appetites of both casual and serious. Even seasoned cigar smokers, for example, will be impressed by the set of cigar bands from Mercator Vander Elst portraying Churchill wearing twenty-four different hats!

The author’s deep knowledge and love for his subject shine through the almost 200 glossy pages. His years of research are evident and the result leaves no doubt how much he relished his task of providing a stimulating book on a sparsely researched topic. As a collector appreciative of his work, here and in the pages of Finest Hour, I hope that The Book of Churchilliana is a prelude to much more yet to come as we continue to delve ever deeper into this vast, barely chronicled and important aspect of the Churchill saga.

Mr. Geller is Vice Chairman of The Churchill Centre Board of Trustees.