US

Skinner is holding two sales of Asian works of art in Marlborough, Massachusetts, this month: online from March 14-24 and live on March 23.

The highlight of the sale held by Clarke (25% buyer’s premium) on February 6 proved, as expected, to be Fernand Leger’s (1881-1955) gouache Les Loisirs.

This Regina disc and double comb-operated upright musical box is expected to be one of the highlights when Woody Auction in Kansas offers the collection of David and Marlene Howard from Ohio on March 19.

Hindman will cover four centuries of American artists and craftsmen in its March 10-11 American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts auction in Cincinatti.

One of the stand-out lots at Sotheby’s New York (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was a 1949 first printing of The Intelligent Investor.

Christie’s Jewels has appointed Eleanor Walper as associate vice president and specialist at Christie’s in Los Angeles.

This splendid example of the illustrative work of Edmund Dulac, a watercolour, gouache and ink drawing on paper, is his original artwork for one of the 28 plates he produced for a 1911, Hodder & Stoughton edition of Stories from Hans Andersen.

Sometimes it pays to look a little further afield.

A four-day US sale of comics and comic art produced some extraordinary results – with 4900 would-be buyers registered and every one of the 1333 lots sold to bring a premium-inclusive total of $23.76m (£17.34m).

A collection of Chinese snuff bottles offered in two sessions stands out among an intriguing selection of Asia Week New York auctions and dealer shows.

Some 26 galleries will be participating in the dealers’ section of Asia Week New York either in person at a variety of city galleries or online.

Two letters in the hand of Benjamin Franklin, dating from 1782 and 1784 and both relating to the terms of the peace agreement between the newly independent USA and Britain that were being worked out during negotiations in Paris, provided the highest bids at Bonhams New York (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) on December 15.

Michael Wajszczuk has joined Heritage’s Beverly Hills office as a consignment director in the auction house’s timepieces category.

This cloisonné and plique à jour enamel silver presentation tankard will be one of the highlights of the Gilded Age auction at Freeman’s in Philadelphia on February 24.

The record-shattering sum of $41m paid for an extremely rare, 1787 first printing of the US Constitution at Sotheby’s New York last November was covered in ATG No 2520, but a sale held by the same auction house a few days later, on November 23, also contained rare items of American historical interest.

Two signed watercolours by the Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011) will be on sale at Bruneau & Co of Cranston, Rhode Island, on February 21.

This Channel scene by the British marine painter Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842) will feature in the Winter Marine sale at Eldred's in East Dennis, Massachusetts, on February 24.

Traditional collecting fields still have an attraction when estimates are realistic, as proved by 18th century porcelain and pottery auctioned in the US