International

In May 1983 the eyes of arms and armour bidders were fixed firmly on the £6m sale of the Hever Castle collection at Sotheby’s in London.

This clown acrobat of c.1910 is one of around 150 automata from the Michael Kam collection that feature in the Potter & Potter August 24 auction in Chicago.

Edged weapons from the East were also an important part of the sale held by Czerny (20% buyer’s premium) in Sarzano, Italy, on June 16.

Centenary of the hugely influential school’s foundation prompts a string of auctions.

In its active years, some 1200 students passed through the Bauhaus school. It marked the starting point of many an illustrious career as numerous members of the teaching staff went on to become the most important artists of their era.

Metalware in all its forms played a major part in the development of the Bauhaus and recent sales contained examples in every price range.

One of the offshoots of the Bauhaus was the ceramic factory in Velten-Vordamm, just north of Berlin. Much of the stoneware designed by the ceramic artists at the school was executed there, several examples of which came up for sale at Quittenbaum.

Published in 1931, Pearl S Buck’s 'The Good Earth' was the best-selling novel in the US for both that and the following year, as well as the winner of a Pulitzer Prize.

One the most productive Bauhaus furniture designers was the Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer (1902-81). From 1925-28 he was in charge of the so-called interior workshop at the design school.

Paris may have largely shut its saleroom doors for the summer months but beyond the capital, particularly around the French coast, auctions still take place throughout July and August.

Our regular listings of British and Irish book auctions.

These two posters which will be offered for sale by Swann Auction Galleries in New York on August 7 illustrate the convoluted history of the Olympic Games during the Second World War era.