The National Archives

Sales monitoring

We operate a sale catalogue monitoring service which serves two functions: it allows us to keep up to date on the movement and the market value of historical manuscripts, and it enables us to notify British archivists of manuscript sales which may be of interest to them.

The sales team takes catalogues from the main London auction houses and dealers, provincial dealers and auctioneers and international auction houses that sell manuscripts relating to British history. The team also regularly monitors sales only available on the Internet.

Information on manuscript sales is stored on a database for future reference. Members of the sales team will answer enquiries from archivists concerning manuscript sales, within reason.