Manuscript

A huge collection of manuscripts from investment scheme Aristophil will finally be resold in Paris after a two-year wait.

One of the largest collections of original John F. Kennedy documents remaining in private hands is being offered for sale by a London book dealer.

'No, you can't chop your Poppa up in Massachusetts', the refrain from a once hugely popular song, and the verse from a skipping-rope rhyme with which this article ends, both derive from the controversy that continues to this day regarding one of America's most famous murder trials – and to a legal document sold on October 19 by Heritage Auctions of Dallas.

A logbook recording three voyages to Australia and the Far East made in 1847-52, two of them transporting young prisoners, or 'exiles', to Australia, led Dominic Winter’s latest sale.

Bid to £3100, some ten times the high estimate, a contemporary manuscript copy of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s ‘The School for Scandal’ sold at a recent Dominic Winter sale.

It was known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice but life in the Italian city state could be turbulent. The maritime republic spanned the 8th to 18th centuries though opportunities to amass power and wealth were challenged by outside threats, particularly from the Ottoman Empire. Among a group of documents on offer at Christie’s is one which recalls the city’s naval endeavours - a commission for the pirate-hunter Benedetto Pesaro.

The antiquarian book trade has suffered one of its biggest-ever thefts after an audacious robbery in west London.

America’s previously neglected founding father Alexander Hamilton is now firmly back to prominence after the Broadway hit ‘Hamilton’, which won eleven Tony Awards last year. The show is now coming to London's West End this year.

A musical manuscript at the centre of a row over whether it was handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven or a copyist has failed to sell at an auction at Sotheby’s.

The publisher of JK Rowling's Harry Potter books is to auction his copy of 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' at Sotheby’s next month.

A hand-written and autographed speech by President John F Kennedy is among the lots from Malcolm S Forbes’ estate to be sold at auction next week.

Historical documents and manuscripts from the scandal-hit Aristophil investment scheme could soon return to the market as the slow process of restitution promises to quicken in the coming weeks.

A signed copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 promising freedom to all slaves in the rebel states will be offered at an upcoming Sotheby’s sale in New York.

“Button who?” When Shropshire documents consultant Ben Jones was told that an American client was considering selling the clipped signature of Button Gwinnett he reached for the search engine.

Florence’s longstanding Antiques Fair, the ‘Biennale Internationale dell’ Antiquariato di Firenze’, opens next week in the city’s 17th century Palazzo Corsini, running from September 26 to October 4.

Only one other major George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) manuscript has come up for auction in the last 40 years, so Stargardt in Berlin can be assured of an international audience for the extensive autograph work they will offer on March 24-25.