What is Your Butter Dish Worth?
Blog Entry: Tuesday 05 Jan 2010
At a recent auction in Aylsham, Norfolk, a silver butter dish fetched a staggering price of £4,200. But before we all start frantically searching our cupboards it should probably be mentioned that Sir Winston Churchill once used this particular butter dish.
It is said that Churchill used the dish as an ashtray during his visits to London’s Savoy Hotel. He was a founding member of the hotel’s political dining club and frequented the establishment (and used the butter dish/ashtray) right up until six weeks before his death in 1964.
Experts expected the dish to sell for around £1,500, but interest from around the world nearly tripled that estimate. The 200-year old shell-shaped butter dish was valuable in itself, but auctioneer William King noted that it was “…the provenance that added the value to it.”
Read the full story “Winston’s ashtray sells for £4,200” at BBC.co.uk.
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