Letter

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.

Delays and overspends on the Great Western route out of London are frustrating but letters up for auction on April 29 reveal that things didn’t always go smoothly even for the brilliant engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

While relations between the English/Unionist and the Scottish powers-that-be are not exactly cordial at the moment, hopefully it will not lead to battle. If a referendum is indeed held to decide the fate of the union, a ballot rather than the bullet should be sufficient.

An auction house which sold a 1937 handwritten letter by Beatrix Potter is offering another fascinating collection related to the children’s author just over two months later.

Letters from the late Princess Diana surfaced at auction earlier this year in Cambridge and now another set is being offered in Gloucestershire.