International

Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African, tells the remarkable story of an African born on a British slave ship who earned a place among the London elite.

An Irish Regency overmantel mirror in Egyptian Revival style by the Dublin artisan Joshua Kearney (1797-1849) hammered for $22,000 (£16,400) against a $6000-8000 guide at Andrew Jones Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Los Angeles.

'At the Door of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus', c.1889-91, was painted by Gustav Bauernfeind (1848-1904), one of the leading Orientalist painters of Germany.

In 1950, the Swiss artist, architect and designer Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967) joined his cousin Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who had assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier) to create a new capital of Punjab.

A pair of Edwardian wine and water ewers by London silversmith Sydney Bellamy Harman, 1910, tied for the most-expensive lot at a recent Doyle (28% buyer’s premium) auction.

A rare vinyl and rubber Supersol monster toy seized top-lot status with its vivid blue-green vinyl claws at a recent sale at Landry Pop Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) in Lambertville, New Jersey.

According to the lot notes, 11 wood veneers from Macassar ebony to burr maple were used in making the c.1903 Émile Gallé Épis de Blé sideboard.

Two years after a Wiltshire auction house set a record for Titanic memorabilia with ‘the watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor’ at £900,000, another timekeeper making precisely the same claim has sold in Chicago for $800,000 (£592,000).

Peter Harrington Rare Books presents a selection of British treasures fit to delight a US audience at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.

An historic piece of Georgian silver – the ‘pair’ to the famed Walpole ‘seal salver’ in the Victoria & Albert Museum – is being offered for sale following its recent rediscovery in New York.

Henry VIII, King of England 1509-47 was not a happy man on July 14, 1539, it seems.

There was plenty of interest at a sale held by Van Ham (27% buyer’s premium) in Cologne for a painting of a Medieval scene with jousting tournament.

Three Old Master paintings being sold by Van Ham on May 22 in Cologne have a direct connection to the collection of Augustus the Strong.

With only one key, the Diskret, which was offered at a recent sale at Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium), did not conform to the conventional layout of a typewriter.

In 1869, under the terms of the will of John Davy, brother of the celebrated chemist Humphry Davy, the Davy Medal was established in his name.