The autograph sale held by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in New York on May 4 included a musical quotation in the hand of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (right), the theme from the finale of his Orchestral Suite No.3 in G Major (Op.55), which sold for $14,000 (£10,855).
The composer signed and dated it “21 Mars 1888 /Londres”, on which very day he conducted a performance of the work at St James’s Hall in London.
In the same sale, a doubly signed example of a photograph taken outside the White House on December 6, 1960, showed Dwight D Eisenhower and John F Kennedy, the man who just a month earlier had defeated Richard Nixon in the American elections and within weeks would be sworn in as Ike’s successor as president. It sold at $26,000 (£20,155).