Tajan

Legend has it that Charles Arpels (of Van Cleef & Arpels fame) saw a lady friend stashing her lipstick and other cosmetics in an ordinary cigarette tin for a trip out on the town.

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.

On December 5 in Paris Tajan will be selling items from a private collection of jewellery assembled over the past 40 years.

The Roger Capron Navettes table from Tajan’s (26/21/14% buyer’s premium) September 19 sale of modern and contemporary ceramics, which was previewed in ATG No 2609, sold for €1000 (£870) including premium.

Tajan is holding a sale of Modern and Contemporary Ceramics in Paris on September 19 timed to be on view during Paris Design Week which runs from September 7-16.

Italian-born sculptor was a founding figure in the first wave of Modernism via São Paolo

This 17th century floral still-life features in the sale of Old Master paintings and drawings to be held by Tajan on June 21.

Tajan's Asian Art auction on June 12 will include this Tianquiping vase, a republic period piece bearing an apochryphal Qianlong mark to the base.

This design for a fan leaf painted with two reclining figures of elegant women appeared in an Impressionist and Modern art sale held in Paris

Works on paper are included in two picture sales running on consecutive days at Tajan in March.

This youthful work by Edouard Manet (1832-83) was the top-seller in the Modern and Contemporary auction at Tajan (26/21/14% buyer’s premium) in Paris.

The highlight of Tajan’s (25/20/12%buyer’s premium) Old Masters auction held on June 22 was an impressive large-scale modello created by the Italian artist Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) in preparation for his painting for the ceiling of San Domenico Maggiore, in Naples.

Genre scene sets a new high for French artist inspired by Dutch and Flemish paintings.

The personal desk set of the artist/decorator Paul Dupré Lafon (1900-71) will feature in the sale of Decorative Arts to be held by Tajan on November 23.

Two auction houses, Christie’s and Tajan, are collaborating for a November 22 sale in Paris of Old Master paintings and drawings from the collections of the Marcille family.

Two Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) drawings created national news last week as Christie’s posted a record for a sketch by the great master in London while a court in Paris is to determine whether another can be legally exported from France.

Some of the world’s most famous Old Master paintings have been highly regarded for many centuries, carrying a reputation that has led to them being replicated and copied by other artists – sometimes soon after their creation.

A highlight of the Asian Art sale at Tajan will be this still-life of a pot of primroses, apples and porcelain by Chinese artist Pan Yu Liang (1895-1977).

The Madoura pottery founded by Suzanne and Georges Ramié in Vallauris, a village in the south of France renowned for pottery production, was a popular place for many artists in the post-war years. From 1948-55 Pablo Picasso lived in Vallauris and divided his time between painting and creating ceramics at Madoura.