Letter

According to the memoir Le Mémorial de Sainte- Hélène by Count Emmanuel de Las Cases published in 1823, Napoleon first expressed an interest to learn the English language during the two-month voyage from Europe to the island in 1815 aboard the Northumberland.

Charles Carroll’s printed copy of the Declaration of Independence – discovered earlier this year in a Scottish family home – sold at auction in Philadelphia for $3.7m (£2.85m) plus premium.

Discovered lying unrecognised on a bookcase in a Sussex cottage, a unique edition of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard will be offered at Gorringe’s this month with a £100,000-150,000 estimate.

Sold for $42,500 (£30,795) was a very appealing Einstein lot that offered a short but amusing letter dating from November 1928 and a signed photo-portrait.

Albert Einstein letter on Communism is one of the stand-out performers in a Chicago auction

A couple of Winston Churchill letters were among the more successful lots in a second selection from a History in Manuscript collection* formed over the last 20 years and offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

The Library Auction at Hansons (Bishton Hall, Staffordshire) on June 15 includes this autograph letter by Roald Dahl.

How letters related to wars bring a connection that history books cannot match

In the bicentenary year of his death, relics connected to Napoleon will inevitably catch the eye.

The great British tradition of celebrating last stands and heroic defeats includes the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.

Convoys to protect merchant vessels have a long history in naval conflict. A letter sold at Kent saleroom C&T (22% buyer’s premium) in a timed Military Books, Ephemera & Photographs Auction reveals Royal Navy ships in action back in 1808.

This typewritten draft of a letter from President Kennedy to Winston Churchill, with annotated amendments by JFK, will feature in the auction of Books and Manuscripts to be held by Freeman’s in Philadelphia on May 20.

After a long and illustrious naval career, it is a pity that Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell is best known for the circumstances of his death.

A group of some 40 letters and greetings cards sent in 1990-97 by Diana, Princess of Wales, to her good friend Roger Bramble sold for almost £70,000.

The handwritten journal of Colonel Christopher Rigby, recording his success in securing freedom for thousands of slaves in east Africa, was the highlight of a collection of his papers sold in London.

Sold for €160,000 (£144,145) was a letter sent by Félix Régamy to his brother Frédéric including a drawing of Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine in England.

The latest Specialist Collectors’ Sale at Cuttlestones in Wolverhampton included a little bit of 20th century ceramics history.

Several decades on from the last of the five major auctions Sotheby’s held to disperse items from the remarkable collections of American historical documents and letters formed by Philip (1902-75) and Elsie Sang (1906-97), a further selection appeared at Sotheby’s New York (26/20/13.9%).