Auctions

Letters and trinkets show off the personal sides of Einstein, Hawking, and Schrödinger.

His scribbles—which mention the curative power of toad vomit—sold for $81,000.

A celebration of freedom, published next to advertisements for the slave trade.

It waited 1,000 years in the desert, just for you.

Including its old Victorian-era nails.

It traveled three continents, survived desert warfare, and accidentally ended up with a man who'd been looking for it all along.

For free: Four more of these derelict, decommissioned structures, courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

The auctioneers think they’re Tiffany, but it’s actually hard to prove.

In a letter to her sister, the novelist politely recounts a grisly scene.

When the politician dropped it in a London theater, an usher swooped in to save it.

Dickens spent the days before his death counting casks of whiskey.

Hogging the limelight at the Kentucky State Fair.

Only four such sets are known to exist.

Though John Evelyn wasn't a vegetarian, he did appear to be ahead of his time.

The King kind of had a thing for cars.

You might call it a miscommunique.