Switzerland

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.

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

Spectators at an auction in Zürich were left flabbergasted when a Quattrocento panel painting with a SFr5000-7000 estimate catalogued as ‘in the style of Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510)’ was knocked down at SFr6.4m (£5.16m) after an intense 10-minute bidding battle.

A Chinese parcel gilt bronze censer, that was being used to hold tennis balls when first seen by valuers last year, has sold at auction in Switzerland for close to £3.3m.

Berlin auction house Grisebach posted an auction record for the Swiss artist Karl Stauffer-Bern (1857-91) on May 29 when it sold a self-portrait which had been recently restituted to the family of its original Jewish owners.

The extensive spring sale at Schuler (20/18.6/16.6% buyer’s premium) in Zurich lasted from March 18-22. The results were as varied as the works of art on offer.

The biggest surprise at the sale of works of art at Koller (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) in Zurich on March 28 was the result for a bronze figure by Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-91).

The May 11-12 Geneva sale conducted by Phillips in association with watch consultancy Bacs & Russo includes one of the most complicated wristwatches of the pre-war era: the Vacheron Constantin minute repeater with retrograde calendar from 1940.

Dogny Auction in Switzerland will be offering around 75 lots of ceramics and other Asian works art from the collection of Rolf Heiniger in its winter sale on December 4-5 in Lausanne.

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.

In the end, it was diamonds, not cake, that triggered the tragic downfall of Marie-Antoinette (1755-93) and her family. Even though the doomed queen was innocent of conspiracy, it was the affair of a diamond necklace that lit the powder-keg of revolution.

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

Imperial souvenirs, Expressionist portraits and metalware from Augsburg and Iran were among the recent highlights at sales in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Dogny Auction in Lausanne will be offering this portrait by Albert Anker (1831-1910) as a highlight of its June 5 summer auction.

Old Masters and post-Impressionist paintings, vintage luggage and the almost inevitable Asian artefacts all appeared among the best-sellers in the recent round of auctions held across Germany and Switzerland.

Axel Plambeck (b.1936) was CEO of a re-insurance company and in his spare time he collected vintage luggage and picnic sets.