Wedgwood Centenary bust of Winston S. Churchill, copy #688 of 750, 1974 For Sale

Centenary Bust of Sir Winston S. Churchill

Copy #688 of 750 produced for the centenary of Churchill's birth and featuring an excerpt from his first speech as Britain's wartime Prime Minister

modelled by Arnold Machin, R.A.

Stoke-on-Trent, England: Wedgwood, 1974
Condition: Fine

This bust of Sir Winston S. Churchill, modelled by Arnold Machin, was produced by Wedgwood in black basalt in a limited and numbered edition in 1974 for the 100th anniversary of Churchill’s birth.

This is copy 688, stamped thus in gilt on the back of the plinth. The bust measures approximately 7.5 inches tall. Stamped in gilt above the limitation number on the back of the plinth in two lines is “Modelled by | Arnold Machin, R.A.” Stamped in blind at the base of the plinth below the limitation number is “WEDGWOOD”. Inside the bottom lip of the base of the plinth is “MADE IN | ENGLAND”. On the front of the plinth, stamped in gilt in four lines, is: “WINSTON CHURCHILL | 1874-1965 | “I have nothing to offer but | blood, toil, tears and sweat”. Condition of the bust is fine, with no appreciable flaws or wear.

Per Douglas Hall (The Book of Churchilliana, p.181) "Arnold Machin's 1940 bust of Churchill was issued in Windsor Grey in 1954 and in 1974 with an uninscribed plinth. Black basalt versions were issued in 1964, 1965, 1974, and 1985, some with plain plinths but others with at least three different inscriptions. This one: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil tears and sweat' was made in a limited edition of 750 for the Churchill Centenary."

The excerpt, exceptionally fitting for a bust originally modelled in 1940, is the most famous line from Churchill's first speech as Great Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, delivered in the House of Commons, May 13th, 1940. During the 1930s, Churchill spent nearly a decade out of power and out of favor, warning against the growing Nazi threat and often at odds with both his Party leadership and prevailing public sentiment. As the Second World War approached, he passed into his sixties with his own future as uncertain as that of his nation. But in September 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill was asked to join the wartime Cabinet. Eight months later, amid the manifest failure of Chamberlain’s leadership, Churchill became wartime Prime Minister on 10 May 1940. Churchill later recalled: “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.” (Gilbert, Vol 1, 526-27)

On 13 May Churchill addressed the House of Commons for the first time as Prime Minister. His remarks were short and reportedly both electrifying and reassuring to those unsure of their new leader. “I say to the House as I said to Ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind…You ask what is our aim? I can answer in a single word. It is victory. Victory at all costs – victory in spite of all terrors – victory however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival… No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward... I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail… ‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.’”

Robert Rhodes James records that “When the speech ended, the House of Commons, after a brief stunned silence, erupted into a rare and moving ovation. ‘I understood then,’ one of his listeners later wrote ‘why the men of the Tenth Legion had loved Caesar.’ Churchill himself was deeply moved. As he walked out of the chamber, past the Speaker’s Chair, he was almost in tears.” (Complete Speeches)

Ref #: 008440
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