THE descendants of the goldfish glinting in the shady water, in a painting going on view at Sotheby’s auctioneers, are still swimming in the same today. The pond was dug by Winston Churchill at his beloved home, Chartwell in Kent, and the original fish were present from Harrods.

His painting of the scene is one of the star items in an auction of personal possessions left by his last surviving child, Lady Mary Soames, who died last June aged 91.

A gallery of his own paintings, regarded as the most important group ever sold, together with furniture, jewellery, photographs, books — many signed by the authors — and silverware including the dishes which his budgie Toby was trained to march up and down the dinner table and serve salt from, is on public display at Sotheby’s in Bond Street — Daughter of History, Mary Soames and the Legacy of Churchill — from now until the auction next Wednesday, Dec 17.

It is the last time they will be seen together before they are scattered across the world to collectors of Churchilliana.

His granddaughter, the writer Emma Soames, said it was an odd feeling to walk into a recreation of her mother’s drawing room where everything including the sofas flanking the mock fireplace was for sale. “There are so many of us children and grandchildren it was the only possible thing to do, but my mother left a very open will so we are very sure we’re not doing anything against her wishes,” she added.

“And it’s not as if we’ve been left empty-handed, there was just so much stuff — we’ve all got pieces of furniture, silver and at least one painting.”

Some of the paintings are by famous artists including Walter Sickert, who had been a friend of Churchill’s mother-in-law, a moody view of a moonlit Wandsworth by Atkinson Grimshaw, a rare beach scene by L.S. Lowry, and Sir William Nicholson. Nicholson was fondly remembered by Mary making portraits of her dolls and pets including the ginger cat Jock; several of his drawings are in the sale, estimated at up to (pounds sterling) 8,000. The original is long dead, but at Churchill’s request a ginger cat with white socks, always called Jock, still roams Chartwell.

The hottest bidding, however, is expected to be for the works of the passionate amateur Churchill, who befriended and was tutored by many of the artists including Sickert and Nicholson. Paintings expert Frances Christie says he was a much better painter than he is often given credit for: “He had very good tutors, and he really took advice and learned from them — which many artists never do.”

The last time Sotheby’s sold a Chartwell view in 2007, it set a new (pounds sterling) one million record for his work. This time there are three, including the goldfish pond, estimated at up to (pounds sterling)600,000, and a view from his terrace of the snow covered Weald, flanked by walls from another hobby of amateur brick laying, estimated at up to (pounds sterling)350,000.

His holiday landscapes are less coveted by collectors, but one shows the moat of a chateau outside Paris, the home of the glamorous Consuelo Vanderbilt, first wife of his cousin the Duke of Marlborough. She recorded in her memoirs that because the water was boringly still, he ordered some village boys to row around the moat and cause some interesting ripples.

Mary Soames was his youngest child and moved with her parents into Downing Street when he became prime minister. She served as his aide-de-camp in the war — having signed up as a gunner, when she was sent crates of sustaining Bovril and cigarettes by Field Marshal Montgomery — and was by her father’s side for many key moments including, at the age of 23, organising the dinner at the Potsdam Conference with Harry Truman and Josef Stalin.

Chartwell is now a National Trust property, and a further group of paintings which has been on loan to the house from the family is now going through the government scheme for accepting works of art in lieu of inheritance tax, and is expected to be allocated permanently to his happiest home.

—By arrangement with the Guardian

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2014