International

Relics from the dawn of the electro-magnetic telephone created a sensation when they appeared for sale in Massachusetts.

Toy specialist Lankes (25% buyer’s premium) in Döhlau, Germany auctioned the extensive inventory of the private museum in Prague belonging to Ivan Steiger, who is equally well-known as a caricaturist and a collector of toys.

European dealers and collectors competed for pieces of 18th century Transylvanian silver which were on sale at the 300th auction of Dr Fischer (30% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn, Germany.

British artist Albert Joseph Moore (1841-93) was predestined to become a painter, following in the footsteps of his father and four of his 13 siblings.

One of the lesser-known episodes in the long and eventful life of Francis Bacon lasted little more than five years and was later dismissed by the artist as unimportant.

An old label on the back of a Medway view that emerged in Germany gave a tantalising suggestion that the British artist John Constable was involved.

Andrew Morris spent over 30 years putting together a collection focusing on the Worcester porcelain of the Kerr and Binns and Royal Worcester periods and Leonard Joel (25% buyer’s premium) offered it at auction in Melbourne, Australia, over two days on March 25-26.

Horace Pippin (1888-1946), a self-taught black US artist known for images of the First World War, biblical scenes and images of racial segregation, features at 'The Philadelphia Show' this year where his 1944 still-life 'The Love Note' is offered by M Hanks Gallery for $250,000.

Deceased estates and collectors selling up mean items collected in the late 20th century reappear at auction.

The invention of the megalethoscope by the Swiss-Italian optician and photographer Carlo Ponti greatly enhanced the experience of viewing photographs.

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

Priced 10 cents when it appeared in 1938, a copy of Action Comics No 1 which introduced Superman has become the world’s most valuable comic book.

'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue' was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s first commissioned poster and it launched his poster-making career overnight.

Bob Aibel is founder of Moderne, one of the exhibitors at the Philadelphia Show