International

The latest round of art auctions in Ireland showed a marked buoyancy with totals and selling rates up on recent years.

Pelé’s Brazil 1958 match-worn World Cup final shirt is up for auction with an estimate ‘in excess of $6m’.

This early 20th century Russian silver and cloisonné enamel pill box measuring just 1½in (3.5cm) across bears marks for Fabergé and Feodor Ruckert (1840-1917).

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.

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.

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.

Both the first and the first trade editions of A Room of One’s Own (1929) were among a collection of eight Virginia Woolf lots included in the April 16 Rare Books, Autographs, & Maps auction at Doyle (28% buyer’s premium) in New York.

An “exceedingly uncommon” signed and inscribed photograph of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) earned top-lot honours in an Autographs sale held at Swann.

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

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

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

Book owner’s son realised the impact this landmark work would have

Part of the legend of escapologist Harry Houdini (1874-1926) rests on the hundreds of ‘challenges’ he accepted from manufacturers of packing cases, boxes, handcuffs and the like.

The Van Blarenberghes were a dynasty of artists from Lille in northern France.

A handkerchief made in early 19th century Scotland celebrating the 1776 Declaration of Independence and featuring portraits of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson hammered for $55,000 (£40,425) at Eldred’s (26% buyer’s premium).

Rare Renaissance item hammered at €450,000 is boosted by armorial for two significant families