Auctions

A couple of Winston Churchill letters were among the more successful lots in a second selection from a History in Manuscript collection* formed over the last 20 years and offered at Sotheby’s (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium).

Beaussant-Lefèvre is holding a series of sales on May 28 at the Drouot auction centre. Among them is an auction of Old Master and Modern paintings and antique furniture assembled by the collector James Bismuth (1931-2020) offered for sale by his descendants.

As the son of an entomologist and ornithologist, the artist David Morrison Reid-Henry (1919-77) was destined for a career observing wildlife and nature.

Strawser auctions in Indiana has a long tradition of selling 19th and early 20th century English majolica wares by the likes of Minton and George Jones and Wedgwood.

Among the fine art to be included in the May 29 sale at Fontaine’s in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, will be this Parisian street scene by the French artist Edouard Leon Cortes (1882-1969).

Good art at a great price in regional sales.

Bloomfield Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) in Belfast achieved a house record on May 11 with the sale of this William De Morgan vase for £15,000.

This Fijian kava bowl, or daveniyaqona, carved in the form of a shallow figure, would have been used for both the consumption of kava (yaqona – the intoxicating liquor of the pepper plant) by priests during religious rites and to hold sacred oil.

London’s art world between the wars was a surprisingly diverse community.

The bicentenary of Napoléon Bonaparte's death boosts demand for relics

Recent stand-out lots from salerooms in Basel, Zurich, Constance, Stuttgart and Dresden

Warhol rarity sold in New York auction has feline theme

In the bicentenary year of his death, relics connected to Napoleon will inevitably catch the eye.

Little is known about the biography of the German watchmaker Sigismund Rentzsch, who came to London in the early 19th century, where he set up a workshop.

'Orangepflückerin' (Orange Picker) lamp by Goldscheider up at auction in Germany.