Letter

A letter written to John Constable by a key patron formed part of the sale of Old Masters and 19th Century Art at Chiswick Auctions on September 18.

More than a dozen letters and cards from Diana, Princess of Wales, to her family’s former housekeeper were sold at a recent auction at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium).

William Strutz’s library built within his home in Bismarck, North Dakota, consisted of some 15,000 books, which the attorney began assembling while in college in the late 1950s

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) epitomised the power of words and, on June 25, that is what bidders had the chance to own in the form of those penned by the political and spiritual leader himself in a letter to his friend, South African architect Hermann Kallenbach (1871-1945).

A landlord and tenancy agreement signed by Freddie Mercury in 1986 was among the highlights of the Autographs and Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium).

“You were the only person who ever succeeded in teaching me mathematics or indeed - let me add - in making me work at anything that did not excite my interest. I regard my work at mathematics under your care as the most salutary mental discipline I ever received.”

A letter from Ernest Shackleton to a supporter, written from South Georgia on the eve of his final departure on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, was offered at Charles Miller’s (24% buyer’s premium) latest Maritime and Scientific Models, Instruments & Art sale.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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