Original V-SIGN PENDANT

Description

Three months after his retirement as Prime Minister, on July 13, 1955, Winston Churchill sent silver V-sign pendants to 113 former members of his staff at 10 Downing Street and Chequers, including the cleaners, electricians, telephonists, messengers, and carpenters, as well as his prewar and wartime secretariat. The pendants were designed and executed according to Churchill’s instructions by Cartier in London. This example was presented to Sergeant Edmund Murray (and his wife, Beryl). Murray was Churchill’s bodyguard in 1955 (as he would remain until Churchill’s death in 1965). The pendant is cunning and delicate; the antithesis, in a sense, of the bold statement it represents: V for Victory. A broad letter V embedded in a thin circle that measures only 22 millimeters in diameter, it is engraved with Winston Churchill’s name in cursive script and the dates: 1951-1955. The pendant comes directly from Edmund Murray’s son Bill Murray, in its original red Cartier box. To our knowledge, no Winston Churchill V-sign pendant has ever before been sold.