Auctions

TWICE a year, rare books and unique manuscripts emerge at Sotheby's, shed a blinding light on history, then disappear into the twilight of museums and private collections.

On Monday (11am), Sotheby's offers about 550 love letters from David Lloyd George's youngest daughter, Megan, to her secret lover, the Labour politician Philip Noel-Baker, a married man. Est pounds 1,500- pounds 2,000.

The title deed for the purchase of the South Island of New Zealand from Maori chiefs in 1840, in exchange for annuities of pounds 10- pounds 50 a year, is est pounds 60,000- pounds 80,000. The document surrendering Nauru and Ocean islands, signed by the Japanese in 1945, is est pounds 4,000- pounds 5,000.

Papers and letters of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, including corrected proofs of the Tractatus (1922), are in 15 lots est pounds 500- pounds 600 to pounds 5,000- pounds 6,000. More than 100 documents relating to London's Adam-designed Adelphi, demolished 1936, est pounds 12,000- pounds 15,000. Byron relics - letters, poems and a lock of hair - in nine lots est pounds 400- pounds 2,000. Sotheby's is also selling a 519-lot private theatrical collection of books and drawings, Tuesday (10.30am). It is a good week for unusual designer furniture. Christie's South Kensington, Wednesday (10.30am) is strong on late Victorian arts and crafts, art nouveau and deco. Handsome arts and crafts mahogany sideboard pounds 700- pounds 900, hideous pair of art deco open armchairs pounds 200- pounds 400. Sotheby's three-day colonnade sale on Friday (2.30pm) has plenty of small Georgian mahogany tables from pounds 300- pounds 400 to about pounds 1,600. More Georgian and Victorian mahogany: Sotheby's Billingshurst, Tuesday (10.30am).

Bonhams has modern and contemporary pictures, Thursday (11am), Oriental ceramics, Wednesday (2pm) and trial art Thursday (2pm).