International

Most high-flying ‘design’ is made in multiples. These can be limited editions in short runs but, as some of the most iconic pieces have been produced in their millions, their commercial value is typically vested in early examples or prototypes.

Post-war material is attracting growing interest across all sectors of the art market. A pioneer was the Design sale that championed the creations of designers and taste makers from the second half of the 20th century and beyond.

The specialist Finnish lighting designer Paavo Tynell proved to be the strong suit in a 111-lot Scandinavian design sale held by Artcurial (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Paris.

The Antiquities Dealers’ Association (ADA) has warned that “long-term damage is being inflicted on both the trade and museums” by the growing number of legal cases surrounding antiquities with long North American provenances.

US saleroom Leslie Hindman Auctioneers has hired a new chief executive and sold a stake to a private equity firm to help fund expansion.

The Hôtel Drouot in Paris is to host a street art fair this autumn.

It is relatively rare to find items of 16th century costume on the market, especially pieces in good condition. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that this gentleman’s doublet from c.1580-1600 should end up going to a major museum when it went under the hammer in a Paris auction this month.

Though their output was dwarfed by their male counterparts, talented 20th century Irish female artists pack a punch in the saleroom when their art does appear at auction.

After a continuous 30-year period of trading, and a stockbook tally of around 10,000 pieces, Paris dealer in European ceramics Christophe Perlès has decided to take a break for a couple of years.

This ivory-inlaid fall-fronted cabinet is one of the highlights in a sale of Islamic and Indian art at Drouot by Ader on June 29.

Glass bricks are a common sight in 21st century building construction, but back in the late 19th century they were cutting-edge industrial technology. They were employed by avant-garde architects such as Art Nouveau specialist Hector Guimard and the modernist Le Corbusier.

Bid to a record €18,000 (£15,660) in a May 15-17 series of sales held by Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s pemium) of Königstein, near Frankfurt, was a first edition of Immanuel Kant’s 'Critik der reinen Vernunft'.

Ken Hose, who has published three books on Australian clockmakers, has been fascinated by clocks and their mechanics since he was a teenager.

John Magnier, the Irish horse breeder and art collector, reportedly made a five-fold return on his Amadeo Modigliani reclining nude when it sold at Sotheby’s New York last month for $139m (£102.2m).

Shown below is one of 20 hand-coloured plates from 'Masken des Römischen Carnevals'. This was a rare and separate 1790 Weimar issue of the plates that illustrated a work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Roman carnivals published the previous year – an item that is itself a great rarity*.