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Extraordinary hand-carved wooden presentation casket from the people of Stalingrad to the British craftsmen who made the Stalingrad Sword, circa 1944, 16.25 x 4.75 x 11.5. The lid is richly carved in relief with scrolling foliate arabesques surrounding a central panel set with a brass plaque engraved in script, “J. W. Latam.” A fall-front on brass hinges opens to reveal the interior lid, inset with a dramatic photograph of the ruined city titled “Stalingrad,” above a presentation album bound in red cloth, its double-door covers joined by a pierced brass mount. The album opens with a letter in Russian and English addressed “To the British Craftsmen Who Helped Make the Sword for Stalingrad,” signed in facsimile by dozens of “The Citizens of Stalingrad,” in part: “The citizens of Stalingrad accepted this sword as a symbol of the fighting alliance of two great and mighty peoples—the Soviet and the British—waging a mortal struggle against Nazi Germany.”
Captioned photographs follow the sword from Tehran to a Kremlin ceremony, where Marshal S. M. Budyonny handed it to D. M. Pigalev, Chairman of the Stalingrad City Soviet. The pages then tell the story of the city in gold-lettered text and approximately 85 photographs: Stalingrad before the war; the German assault of August 1942; street fighting and supply crossings of the Volga; portraits of Chuikov, Rodimtsev, Voronov, and Rokossovsky; a hand-colored map of the November 1942 encirclement; the surrender of the German 6th Army, including the building that housed Paulus's headquarters; tributes from Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin; and finally the ruined city's rebirth, with orphaned children, reopened schools and shops, and plans for “a new city, even more splendid than the old one.” Accompanied by a red cloth cover and a printed card reading, “Presentation Casket from the People of Stalingrad to the Craftsmen Who Made the Stalingrad Sword.” In very good to fine condition, with light wear to the casket, including small chips and cracks, light oxidation to the plaque and hinges, and scattered light spotting to a few pages and photographs.
Commissioned by King George VI as a tribute to the defenders of Stalingrad, the jeweled two-handed Sword of Stalingrad was forged by the craftsmen of the Wilkinson Sword Company and inscribed on its blade, “To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad, the gift of King George VI in token of the homage of the British people.” After drawing enormous crowds on exhibition across Britain, it was presented by Winston Churchill to Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference on November 29, 1943. In gratitude, the people of Stalingrad sent carved caskets of photographs to the men who made the sword. Reportedly only 14 were produced, and this example was presented to J. W. Latam. A remarkable artifact of the wartime Anglo-Soviet alliance, linking the most celebrated British gift of the war to the city that turned the tide on the Eastern Front.
