Painting As A Pastime.

CHURCHILL, Winston S.

$15,000.00

Item Number: 147862

London: Oldham Press Limited/Ernest Benn Limited, 1949.

First edition, early printing of this collection of Churchill’s brilliant essays on hobbies and painting. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece, illustrated with eighteen reproductions of Churchill’s paintings in full color. Presentation copy, inscribed by Churchill on the front free endpaper, “To Eleonora Sears, from Winston S. Churchill – 1954.” Accompanied by a typed letter signed by Churchill to Sears laid in, the letter reads in full, “How very kind of you to think of me, and express your thoughts in such an agreeable fashion. I hope you will allow me to reciprocate as only an author can by sending you a copy of Painting As A Pastime, which I have signed for you. It is very nice to look back on the Blenheim days. With all good wishes.” Sears won the U.S. Women’s National Doubles Championship in tennis four times and was an advocate for women’s participation in competitive sports. Her influence extended beyond athletics, as she championed women’s rights in physical fitness and social mobility. Near fine in the original dust jacket which is in very good condition. Rare and desirable signed.

Churchill was a prolific and skilled painter, finding solace in the hobby that he described as "...a friend who makes no undue demands, excites to no exhausting pursuits, keeps faithful pace even with feeble steps, and holds her canvas as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the surly advance of Decrepitude." This volume contains eighteen reproductions in full color of many of his most moving landscapes painted on Lake Como, near the Mediterranean sea, and outside of Monte Carlo.