Letter

Harold Wilson (1916-95) was Britain’s prime minister not once, but twice and was the man who offered Britain its first referendum on membership of the then European Community and the Common Market.

She wrote two of the 20th century’s great masterpieces of fiction. Now on the 30th anniversary of her death, letters and photos relating to ‘Rebecca’ and ‘Jamaica Inn’ author Daphne du Maurier will go under the hammer at an Ely auction house.

A collection of watercolours, drawings and letters by American painter George Catlin (1796-1872) will be offered at Forum Auctions next week.

A previously undocumented archive of writings by Edward Carpenter, the well-connected socialist poet and gay rights pioneer, sold for a hammer price of £4200, more than eight times its upper estimate, at Bamfords in Derby this month.

The archive of Labour’s longest-serving MP Tony Benn (1925-2014) has been accepted by the British Library.

Auction house Christie’s is to auction Albert Einstein’s God Letter – his correspondence to philosopher Erik Gutkind written a year before his death in 1954.

A group of 66 letters from the collection of an important patron of Pre-Raphaelite artists raised a £25,000 total at Shropshire auctioneers Trevanion & Dean.

The collection of photography pioneer and medical writer Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806-80) is to be offered at auction house Lacy Scott & Knight in Bury St Edmunds in October following the success of a first sale last year.

A large cache of letters from Victorian artists including founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) have been consigned to Shropshire auctioneers Trevanion & Dean.

The supposed Curse of Tutankhamen has somewhat overshadowed the astonishing discoveries of Howard Carter, the British archaeologist and Egyptologist.

An archive of manuscripts and correspondence from Russian avant garde artist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) has emerged at Bonhams. It will be auctioned as a single lot in London on June 20.

Prince Harry is due to wed Meghan Markle on Saturday, May 19 and as another royal milestone approaches, Antiques Trade Gazette journalists invariably get asked one question by the national media: is it worth investing in royal memorabilia such as tea towels, mugs and cake tins?

A menu for the first ever meal on the Titanic, a steward’s badge and a letter written on board have all made top prices at auction in Wiltshire.

Letters from some of the famous participants in the American War of Independence written during the conflict will feature in sales on both sides of the Atlantic over the coming weeks.

Rare letters written by children’s author Beatrix Potter just nine months before she died have sold at auction in Maidenhead.

Famous for her children’s stories of Peter Rabbit and friends, Beatrix Potter Heelis (1866-1943) was a prolific letter writer.

The last known letter written on the Titanic by a victim before it sunk in the Atlantic in 1912 has set an auction record for a letter from the doomed ship.

A letter written by author Jane Austen to her favourite niece reveals her wit as she amusingly parodies a gothic novel the pair had read.