US

Freddie Mercury mania in 2023 was not confined to Sotheby’s in London.

In 1585 English colonists Thomas Hariot and John White recorded their first impressions of life on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina.

Printing of abolitionist Douglass’ famous speech on a ‘rich inheritance’ not shared takes nearly $70,000

One of the first big fairs of the year for British dealers takes place across the pond in New York at The Winter Show.

A white marble sculpture of a young man holding what appears to be a cricket ball flew away from its estimate to bring $30,000 (£23,700) at Andrew Jones (25% buyer’s premium).

The Komai family of sword makers and armourers were among the many Japanese metalworkers courting a new clientele during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

Estimated at $2500-3500, this micromosaic plaque depicting the Rape of Europa hammered for $13,000 (£10,300).

Very few English Golden Age clocks signed by Ambrose Gardner are recorded.

Antiquities from the collection of famed works of art dealer Ernest Brummer (1891-1964) sold for a combined total of over $2m at Hindman (26/20/15% buyer’s premium) in Chicago.

A lot in a recent Andrew Jones (25% buyer’s premium) auction that will doubtless merit further research was an early 19th century French self-portrait.

Trained at the Krakow School of Fine Arts as well as the Paris École des Beaux Arts, Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929) is credited for the rise in popularity of symbolism in late 19th and early 20th-century Poland.

Few people can profess to know more about the 1910-12 Japanese Antarctic Expedition than the Arizona book dealer Chet Ross.

Held by the same private New England family since 1792, a copy of 'A Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean' complete with its map came for sale at Bonhams Skinner (28/26/20% buyer’s premium).

A design for a swan-shaped pendant suspended by a gracefully curved neck and bearing a scene of two more swans is among the highlights at an exhibition on the drawings and sketches of René Lalique (1860-1945).

Dealer Peter Harrison has sold a recently reidentified portrait by 17th century painter Mary Beale (1633-99) to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.