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With less than a month until the crunch series of Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York, it is still not clear whether Phillips will be joining Sotheby’s and Christie’s at sales which netted the company $124m last year.

The continued demand for Art Nouveau and the ageless appeal of the female nude provided a winning combination at the sale held by Richard Winterton (11% buyer’s premium) at Burton-on-Trent on March 13.

IN 1528 Albrecht Dürer wrote: “There lives no man upon earth who can give a final judgement upon what the most beautiful shape of a man may be; God only knows that.” As five exhibitions highlight, artists love to expose all the inconsistency of the human form, be it scrawny or rotund.

ArtCurial, the Paris art gallery/bookshop based at the Hôtel Dassault on the Champs-Elysées, have moved to expand their auction activity by taking a minority stake in the auction firm owned by Claude Aguttes, based in the smart Paris suburb of Neuilly.

This silver novelty bookcase 121/2in (32cm) high, pictured right, marked for George Betjemann & Sons 1907, drew huge interest both before the sale and when it went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Knightbridge rooms on March 12. It left the auctioneers’ £300-400 estimate standing as it was pursued to £4300.

KEN PAUL COLLECTION: This bizarre late-19th century mahogany longcase timepiece, right fashioned as a coffin and containing a human skeleton, was the most extraordinary offering in what was itself a highly unusual sale held by Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) in Bond Street from March 13-15.

Neales-Kedleston Hall: The period between the wars and post-1945 saw the dissolution of many English country houses. The economic turmoil caused by conflict saw aristocratic families in dire financial straits and for many the only solution was to sell up and ship out.