North America

Alongside the Americana offered in the New York salerooms earlier this month, there was a strong representation of early English ceramics. Sotheby’s January 20 sale of the pottery collection of Harriet Carlton Goldweitz was followed the next day by Christie’s auction of the Mrs J. Insley Blair collection, which included some key Staffordshire productions alongside its blue chip American furnishings.

Ninety-one-year-old John Werner Kluge is the stuff of the American Dream – a German immigrant who amassed his fortune in the States buying radio and television stations.

A poster for the film Metropolis, considered by many to be the holy grail of science fiction posters, has been sold by London dealers The Reel Poster Gallery to a Californian private collector for $690,000 (£390,000).

INTERNATIONAL exhibition and publishing company dmg world media have acquired Chicago-based Expressions of Culture Inc., producers of SOFA Chicago and SOFA New York.

Less than a month after celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show has been acquired by the managing partners of the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show from Frank Farbenbloom.

Neal Auction Co., temporarily displaced from their New Orleans headquarters, will hold their annual Louisiana Purchase sale on December 3-4 in Jackson, Mississippi.

MALLETT, one of Bond Street’s most famous names, are to expand their New York branch, with work hopefully starting in November.

One of Manhattan’s best-known antique centres, The Showplace, is expanding its 30,000 square ft premises with the addition of a new floor that will open in early October.

SOTHEBY’s are to launch a sale in January that will openly rely entirely upon dealers’ stock for its content.

Stair Galleries and Restoration will move into new headquarters in Hudson New York in August.

Christie’s New York are selling the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana in three portions.

AT this year’s CINOA General Assembly, held in New York from May 12 to 14, delegates representing dealers associations from more than 20 countries discussed two political areas which they felt threatened the international art market.

Bird in Space, right, an unrecorded marble version of one of Constantin Brancusi’s most celebrated and iconic subjects, was the toast of Christie’s $126.8m Impressionist and Modern art sale last week in New York.

Christie's New York (10/12% Buyer's premium)SNUFF bottles vary enormously in quality and price but the J&J collection has to rank as one of the world’s foremost specialist holdings. Although these exquisitely made and highly decorative vessels have a following of strong international collectors, inevitably there are limited buyers for top-end imperial quality works.

Sotheby's New York (20/12% Buyer's Premium) PRICES have steadily risen in recent years for paintings by India’s most established modern artists notably Maqbool Fida Husain (b.1915) and Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002).

It’s well known that diamonds are a girl’s best friend but handbags surely come a close second. The two combined can be a killer combination.

NEW York’s Asian celebrations in late March and the first week of April always galvanise the international trade, attracting to the city collectors, curators and dealers from all over the world.

NEW York’s Asia Week wrapped up towards the end of last week and fair exhibitors and dealers hosting Manhattan selling shows are collating just how successful the enterprise proved.

Maryland auction house Hantman’s will sell personal artefacts and archival material relating to Pierre August Renoir at auction on May 14.

ILLUSTRATED top right is William Hole’s engraved title page for The Iliads from a copy of George Chapman’s first English translation of The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets and The Odysses.