North America

The famous photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson are no strangers to salerooms but it is not every day that you find 120 lots being offered from a single-owner collection.

The War of 1812 was something of a shock to the Royal Navy. Still basking in the glow of victories such as the Battle of the Nile and of course Trafalgar, British ships seemed unbeatable.

Record bids greeted a couple of works by the renowned and influential science-fiction writer Philip K Dick in a November 14 sale held by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

A two-day sale to be staged by Morphy auctions in Denver, Pennsylvania on December 16-17 offers almost 1000 lots of antique and vintage toys, juvenilia and ephemera.

An American dealership is offering a significant relic which highlights the start of the military campaigns leading to independence.

Modern designs are not yet booming in price and a mini-golden age remains something of a secret, but that could be about to change as the largest private collection of its kind goes on display in the US...

Harry Clarke worked for three years on his first major book illustration commission, an edition of the Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen commissioned by Harrap.

A Sino-Tibetan gilt-bronze of a serene Amitayus confounded modest expectations to sell for $690,000 (£518,000) at the Neal Auction Gallery in New Orleans.

Among the items on offer in the December 16 auction of traditional fine art, furniture, decorative items and jewellery to be held by Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York, will be this Aesthetic Movement ebonised and parcel-gilt pedestal standing.

"If it hadn't been for the Blue Boxes, there would have been no Apple. I'm 100% sure of that." So said Steve Jobs of the electronic devices that simulate operators by generating the tones used by a telephone operator’s dialling console, and were typically used from the 1950s by so-called ‘phone phreakers’ to avail themselves of free calls.

A Sioux Indian beaded knife sheath from the Battle of Little Bighorn could be the highlight of Skinner’s sale of American Indian and Ethnographic art to be held on December 2 in Boston.