Europe

In a private collection since it was last sold in 1991, one of only two known autograph manuscripts by author and journalist Albert Camus of his masterpiece L’Etranger was sold by Tajan (23/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Paris on June 5.

Watch chatelaine offered at auction was produced by a man who created many works for the Hanoverian household

Fabergé’s rock crystal, platinum, silver and diamond ‘ice flower’ jewels were made by the workmaster Albert Holmström, c.1913-14, after designs made by his niece Alma Pihl (1888-1976).

Irish art sales rated as ‘very good’ despite some supply challenges as private collectors wait to consign

While the identity of the main artist was up for debate, the impressive ownership of a work sold in Austria was not in doubt

On May 8, Neumeister (30% buyer’s premium) in Munich sold the collection of Hans Constantin Faussner, a Bavarian lawyer and art collector.

The Ivoire Clermont-Ferrand auction house in France has organised themed sales based around the famous Michelin Guide for 25 years with its specialist Pierre Gabriel Gonzalès.

The last Jean-Jacques Rousseau herbarium in private hands came for sale at Ader in Paris on June 17.

It is safe to say that nowadays the image of a smoking dog would find little favour with animal rights activists or for that matter with the current (for now) UK Prime Minister.

A monumental painting of a fish market soared to unexpected heights at the May 16 auction at Lempertz (26% buyer’s premium) in Cologne.

On May 28 in Bruges, Carlo Bonte (28% buyer’s premium) offered The Hermit, Brother Luce, an oil study attributed to the French late Baroque painter Pierre Hubert Subleyras (1699-1749).

June 2, 1878, began as a normal day in the varied life of the German artist Adolph von Menzel.

This recently discovered example of the iconic Bauhaus tea-infuser, designed by Marianne Brandt in 1924, on offer at Lempertz on May 15 for €200,000, was knocked down to the Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum for Art and Industry) for €260,000 (£222,220).

Art in Germany might be about to get a bit cheaper with the German government confirming it will cut the VAT on art sales from 19% to 7% in line with its import VAT.

Moses automaton watch is one of the stand-out hammer highlights in recent sales

Tristram Hillier (1905-83) described the Surrealist pictures he created at Étretat, the picturesque town on the north-western coast of France, as “some of the best I have ever made”.

If proof were needed that regional British clockmakers were as capable of making impressive works as those of London colleagues, then an 18th century longcase clock being sold by Metz on July 19-20 in Heidelberg without reserve, provides it.