Germany

For 30 years the London lawyer David Cooper and his wife Marie devoted themselves to building a collection of Art Deco sculpture.

Chinese bidders were the driving force at this autumn’s German and Austrian auctions of Asian art.

Along with Pallas’ 'Flora Russica', the 'Icones Plantarum novarum… floram Rossicam' of the German-Estonian botanist Carl Friedrich von Ledebour is recognised as one of the great works on Russian flora.

The three volumes noted here are English language highlights of a separately catalogued, 380-lot, single-owner collection in the October 30-November 1 series of sales held by Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s premium) that was offered under the title Wirtschaft und Staat – or Economy and State.

A cartographic highlight of the mammoth October 30-November 1 series of sales held by German auction house Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s premium) was the Insulae Moluccae… map shown below, which sold for almost four times the estimate at €38,000 (£33,670).

The London watchmaker John Ilbery, active from 1780-1839, is credited with the invention of the ‘montre chinoise’, highly ornate goldenamel watches made for the Chinese market.

The sales of Asian art at Lempertz in Cologne traditionally devote a large selection to Japanese works of art and the auction on December 7-8 is no exception.

In 1921, the opening of the spring trade fair in Leipzig was accompanied by inauguration of the socalled Porzellan Palais.

Among the lots in the sale of porcelain and works of art at Metz in Heidelberg on December 15 about 80 Asian pieces come from an old German collection that was on loan to the state museums in Berlin for many decades from 1963 onwards.

The year 1907 was a decisive one in the artistic development of Lyonel Feininger (1871- 1956). In the previous year he had left his wife and family and moved with his new partner Julia Berg to Paris, where their son Andreas was born.

Catching the eye in a German auction was a fine example of the most beautiful of all piscatorial plate books.

Geble auction house in Radolfzell, on the shores of Lake Constance, has an intriguing work by the renowned French craftsman Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751- 1843) in its October 20 auction.

A rare example of Bauhaus design is coming up for sale at Bassenge in Berlin in the auction of October 16-18.

Autumn in the Bavarian capital Munich is traditionally fair time. Shortly after the Oktoberfest closes, exhibitors at two art and antique fairs are hoping for masses of equally enthusiastic visitors.

ATG’s calendar of auctions taking place in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in autumn 2018.

From the very beginning of his career as an independent silversmith in the late 18th century, the London craftsman Paul Storr received numerous noble and royal commissions. He was the foremost artisan in his field from the early 1790s until the late 1830s and supplied most of the silverware purchased by the royal household during this period.

Even when the Cold War was at its height there were, admittedly rare, possibilities for commercial cooperation between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

Among the more sizeable lots at the auction on October 19-20 at Kaupp in Sulzburg near the Black Forest is an early 20th century stained glass window, measuring 10ft 2in x 5ft 11in (3.09 x 1.8m).

On October 27 Lehr in Berlin is selling this 14 x 14in (36 x 35cm) bronze relief, a self-portrait by Paul Gauguin.

It took a bid of €60,000 (£53,100) to secure a pair of flintlock pistols of c.1730 from the armoury of the Princes of Lobkowitz at Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich in May.