Lithograph by Phyllis Ginger depicting the silversmith Leslie Durbin. Great Britain, 1943.

Lithograph printed in three colours depicting the silversmith Leslie Durbin in the process of making the Stalingrad sword of honour which was presented by Winston Churchill to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the allied conference on war strategy in Tehran, November 1943. Signed in pencil.

The sitter, Leslie Durbin, was the husband of the artist and had trained with the noted Arts and Crafts metalworker Omar Ramsden. He was given a special leave of absence from the RAF during WWII to make the gold and silver components of this commemorative sword for Stalin. The sword was designed by Reginald Gleadowe, a Slade professor of fine art at Oxford University, who passed away shortly afterwards in 1944. Durbin made the crossguard and pommel among other components in the small studio of Francis Adam in Lambeth.
In the post war period, Durbin became one of the most respected metalworkers in the country, designing many ecclesiastical pieces, as well as undertaking further commissions for the government and Cambridge University in particular. He made his own tools which were later donated to West Dean after his death to be used in metalwork courses.

CIRC.68-1948