Categories


News

Letter


Admiral Sir Francis Austen drawings

Auction buy set to shed light on Jane Austen

29 April 2024

A 78-page manuscript bought at a Bonhams auction could help to shed light on author Jane Austen.

img_26-3.jpg

B for Byron: letter of apology

29 April 2024

Found in a country house in Gloucestershire, this letter written by Lord Byron (1788-1824) to Major John Cartwright (1740-1824) sold for £6000 at Chorley’s (28.2% buyer’s premium inc VAT) on March 20.

img_26-1.jpg

Churchill letter on o-fish-al business

29 April 2024

Nelson and Napoleon are just two of the historical figures to have collecting markets devoted to themselves. Another is Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965).

img_26-3.jpg

Thanks for keeping my Scottish regalia safe, Charles

01 April 2024

This letter signed by Charles II was written in September 1660, mere months after the restoration of the monarchy.

img_26-1.jpg

Signatures provide a roll call of British PMs from Robert Walpole to Rishi

11 March 2024

A private collection comprising the signatures of every one of Britain’s prime ministers sold for £8000 as part of a designated timed online sale of Autographs and Memorabilia.

img_25-3.jpg

De Medici letter reveals Pope appointment plot

04 March 2024

This single-sheet letter was written by Catherine de Medici (1519-89) to the ambassador to Spain.

Antarctic expedition letters

Letters from 1901 Antarctic explorers show warm feelings for their earlier hosts in New Zealand

26 February 2024

A long-forgotten group of letters written by senior members of Scott and Shackleton’s first trailblazing 1901 expedition to the Antarctic has been discovered.

img_26-4.jpg

Mail recovered from Titanic casualty

19 February 2024

The British and US postal clerks aboard transatlantic liners had the duty of sorting the mail during the passage.

img_26-1.jpg

Original watercolour for Little Prince makes top price among an array of manuscripts and letters

29 January 2024

An original watercolour of the 'Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry fetched nearly 10 times its low estimate, selling for a record £240,000 hammer.

img_19-1.jpg

Fascinating Fleetwood Mac material reveals the road to stardom

02 January 2024

Fleetwood Mac are famous for the huge-selling Rumours album that propelled the band to superstardom but the original line-up and sound were very different.

img_17-1.jpg

Forster’s letters and books to the policeman he loved

02 January 2024

Letters and books marking the deep relationship between author EM Forster and policeman Bob Buckingham and his family sold for £9000.

img_26-1.jpg

Turing and Bayley in tandem as scientific archive comes to the saleroom

18 December 2023

Newly discovered papers show how renowned mathematician and his collaborator worked hand in hand

img_18-1.jpg

Brilliant minds Leibniz and Wotton bring brilliant price

11 December 2023

Letter from German mathematician to English scholar takes £14,000 in Edinburgh saleroom

img_22-5.jpg

Most famous novelist of her day – now hardly known

04 December 2023

Top-selling lot in Halls’ (24% buyer’s premium) books and manuscripts sale on November 15 was a collection of 14 letters written by the Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) between 1818-31.

img_21-1.jpg

Shipshape $7000 surprise

04 December 2023

A group of letters sent from a clipper ship captain in Shanghai during the Second Opium War (1856-60) to his sons in the Charlestown area of Boston resounded with bidders at Merrill’s Auctioneers (21% buyer’s premium) in Williston, Vermont on November 3.

img_40-1.jpg

Drawing by young Elizabeth II failed to impress her mother

13 November 2023

The October 18-19 sale at Everard Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Savannah, Georgia, featured manuscripts, photos and ephemera focused on European royalty.

img_30-2.jpg

Man of letters: correspondence from famous figures

30 October 2023

A collection of correspondence penned by leading figures of the 20th century to an Oxford academic raised more than £20,000 for charity at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) on October 10.

img_37-1.jpg

Charlotte Brontë no longer in male guise

16 October 2023

A wistful and chatty letter from Charlotte Brontë to her editor William S Williams sold for $65,000 (£47,450) in California on September 7.

img_32-1.jpg

Samuel Johnson letter located and bought by UK institution at auction

09 October 2023

While its existence was known, the whereabouts was a mystery until a routine house valuation

Malcolm Campbell memorabilia

Speed of the essence as Crawford lots emerge at Scottish sale

04 September 2023

A group of four lots being sold by the family of the former foreign editor of The Daily Mail includes items relating to the first direct flight across the Atlantic as well as Malcolm Campbell’s Blue Bird 1933 land speed record.