Red leather box, one of seven that survive from his time in office, beat Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate of just £5,000 to £7,000

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Winston Churchill’s old dispatch box has been sold for £158,500 – over 25 times more than it was expected to fetch.

The red leather box was used by Churchill in his time as secretary of state for the colonies, a position he held from February 1921 until October 1922.

The price more than beat the pre-sale estimate of just £5,000 to £7,000.

The box, one of seven that survive from his time in that office, was auctioned by Sotheby’s in London.

The auction house is holding a sale celebrating the life of Lady Mary Soames, the last surviving child of Churchill. She died in May at the age of 91.

Other lots included an Asprey humidor for storing cigars, sold for £21,250, and a photograph of former US president Franklin D Roosevelt signed for Soames, which fetched £32,500.

The sale includes some of Soames’ personal possessions as well as 15 of her father’s paintings.

Soames’ daughter Emma said: “As a family, our overriding desire in organising our mother’s affairs is to honour her wishes and celebrate her memory. This has been the guiding principle behind all of the arrangements now being made.

“She had an extraordinary life, and we now hope that a wider group of people will see and enjoy her remarkable things when they go on view at Sotheby’s. Meanwhile, those that mean most to us as her family are not being sold.”

Henry Wyndham, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Mary Soames played a key role, both in safeguarding and perpetuating her father’s legacy in the post-war decades and in bringing his paintings to a wider public audience.

“As the 50th year since Sir Winston Churchill’s death approaches, it is a huge honour to have been entrusted with this sale. Many items tell the story of a truly remarkable woman and her family, whose personal experience of the great moments and characters in our recent history is utterly captivating.”

Brought up at the Churchill home of Chartwell in Kent, Lady Soames was known as the “Chartwell child”.

During the second world war she was one of the first women to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service and accompanied her father on many of his wartime journeys abroad.

She received acclaim for her 1979 biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill, and served as chair of the Royal National Theatre until 1995.