International (print edition)

The 69th edition of BRAFA, Belgium’s longstanding art and antiques fair, starts this month opening to the public on January 28 and continuing to February 4.

It was in the hope of saving on the huge sums spent procuring works of art from abroad that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s minister of finance, began inviting craftsmen to work at the Gobelins royal manufactory on the outskirts of Paris.

In one of the last auctions to take place at Drouot in 2023, a newly discovered portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard was pursued to €2.5m (£2.17m) at Boisgirard-Antonini (30% buyer’s premium).

Very much the highest price in a recent sale held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium) at Drouot was the €95,000 (£82,610) paid for a rare Gallé glass vase.

On January 30, as part of Old Masters Week, Sotheby’s New York conducts a sale titled The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian & Carolina Irving Collection.

On January 28 in Sarasota, Florida, Helmuth Stone Gallery will conduct a sale of antique picture frames from the Eli Wilner Frame Gallery.

The work of Belgian artist celebrated in his day is coveted by modern collectors judging by latest sales.

Malagan figures played an integral and complex role in the rituals of the tribes of New Ireland, the north-eastern province of Papua New Guinea.

Only a few months after several ornamental pieces of silver by the Viennese designer Dagobert Peche, one of the leading lights of the Wiener Werkstätte, caused a sensation in Düsseldorf (ATG No 2613, the auction house Kinsky (28% buyer’s premium) achieved an impressive result for a work by him.

The decision by Cologne auction house Lempertz (26% buyer’s premium) to postpone the sale of Max Pechstein’s 1909 Expressionist work Selbstbildnis, liegend (Self Portrait, lying down) from June to December 1 proved to be a wise one.

A German collector consigned 28 carpets for the November 25 sale at Rippon Boswell (25% buyer’s premium) in Wiesbaden.

While auction prices for works of art from Japan can scarcely compete with those achieved for pieces from China, the sale at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) in Düsseldorf on November 30 showed that there is still a healthy market for netsuke.

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

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.

The combination of a pre-eminent maker and a perfect provenance made a late 18th century pocket chronometer one of the most sought-after pieces at Dr Crott (25% buyer’s premium) in Mannheim on November 18.

By all accounts, the Bulgarian prince and later Tsar Ferdinand I was a passionate railway enthusiast.

A private collector in London had his work cut out to secure a painting on offer for €2000-3000 at Nagel (29.5% buyer’s premium) in Stuttgart.

Once believed to be by Rubens, work hidden away during the war is now thought to be a copy by a pupil