Germany

One of the big surprises at a recent Ketterer (27% buyer’s premium) book auction in Hamburg was the result for a signed lithograph by Maurits Cornelis Escher.

Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier had a long and distinguished career, making a name for himself with his many-figured paintings of historical meetings.

Johannes Blaeu’s 'Atlas maior, sive Cosmographia…' is considered the finest collection of maps ever produced.

Banker and businessman Jörg Woltmann, who rescued the Berlin porcelain manufacturer, now also acquires a huge vase by the firm.

The Japanese netsuke carver Naito Toyomasa (1773-1856) was renowned for his miniature portrayals of animals in a distinctive, highly detailed style.

Selection of advertising art underlines the extraordinary demand in Germany

Two very different pieces of glass went way over the odds at a specialist sale at Dr Fischer (30% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn.

Two impressive vases from the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg took top honours at the sale held by Auktionshaus OWL (27% buyer’s premium) on May 16 in Bad Driburg in North-Rhine-Westfalia.

In 1934, a meeting of two great modern painters took place in Bern. One of them was the Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who had left Germany shortly before the end of the First World War.

The illustrated book that Vasily Kandinsky published in 1913 under the title 'Klänge' (Sounds) is considered one of the finest examples of Expressionist literature.

Until now, paintings by the Dutch artist Lode Sengers (1896-1956) have rarely gone into four figures.

Many of the Austrian designer Gustav Gurschner’s works of art were driven by the new possibilities provided by electricity.

A seemingly never-ending bidding match ensued at Cortrie in Hamburg on May 9 for a tourbillon-watch by the German watchmaker Richard Miklosch (1939-2014) .

With Sixties and Seventies style again part of the collecting zeitgeist, vintage Kutchinsky pieces are now common currency for the best of the UK’s antique and vintage jewellery dealers and auction houses. However, it also pays to look further afield.

Jodocus Hondius’ additions for his edition of Gerhard Mercator’s pioneering 'Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura' made the work one of the most accomplished collections of maps from the early 17th century.

One of two translated versions that appeared almost simultaneously emerges in German saleroom

The sales at Stargardt (20% buyer’s premium) in Berlin are an important rendezvous for autograph dealers and collectors.

The modest reserve of €2500 for the 13in (34cm) Roman marble torso of a seated man from the 1st or 2nd century left the bidders at Dr Eder (25% buyer’s premium) in Cologne with plenty of upward scope.