Churchill’s Cigar Butt Snubs £4,000 At Auction

A cigar butt discarded by Sir Winston Churchill and picked up by a policeman has sold for more than £4,200 (K4, 750, 326).

The item – cast aside by the wartime leader in the 1940s – went under the hammer on Wednesday,May 26.

The 7cm-long butt caused a stir at the West Sussex auction as it was only expected to sell for £800.

The previous owner’s grandfather, Arthur Church, was a policeman in the 1940s and had been escorting Churchill when he picked up the butt.

It was sold by Bellman’s auctioneers, based in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, for a £3,500 hammer price, rising to £4,270 with buyer’s premium.

This is not the first time an item from Churchill has fetched a high price. In March a pair of his luxury velvet slippers sold for nearly £40,000, and a cigar box for almost £80,000.