STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET, UK – A needlework sampler embroidered by a girl who married a direct descendant of William Bradford (1590-1657), signatory to the Mayflower Compact, comes to auction at the British auction house Sworders next month.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – This year marks the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s most famous invention: the telephone. While scientific history is mired in controversy over who actually devised the first electronic speech-transmitting device, with a number of contenders in the fray, it was Bell who received the US patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. In recognition of Bell’s world-changing invention, Quinn’s has included several significant early documents and other ephemera pertaining to the telephone patent dispute in its February 20 Presidential Autograph and Americana Auction. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.