Watercolours

A ‘lost’ late 16th century portrait miniature by Italian painter Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) has been rediscovered by an art dealer.

Varied group of items related to the poet appeared for sale in Somerset

Watercolour of a sleeping feline – possibly her favourite cat – takes £19,000 in Cambridge saleroom

Irish-born William W Armstrong (1822-1914) emigrated to Canada in 1851 and initially found success as a civil engineer on the early railways and pioneering photography for industrial purposes.

Sketches and journal by Emily Eden relate to her life in the UK then journey to the subcontinent

If you wanted to sum up the current state of the watercolours and works on paper sector in a single sentence, you might say something like ‘flatter than ever for general works but exceptional lots routinely generating strong interest’.

The Paris auction houses will also be hosting plenty of sales devoted entirely or in part to works on paper.

Drawing Week, the Paris annual spring celebration staged around the Salon du Dessin fair and a raft of works on paper auctions, takes place in the latter part of this month when the French capital traditionally turns the spotlight on drawings

Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s offered notable works by French artist Hubert Robert (1733-1808) at the latest Old Master auction series in New York.

Core group of 14 works by the artist on offer could represent significant moment in secondary market

Among the most contested lots at Nadeau’s (23% buyer’s premium) sale on January 1 was a set of miniature watercolour and gouache portraits credited to a follower of the German court painter Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553).

A somewhat innocuous-looking lot at Hansons (26% buyer’s premium) proved to be anything but as a number of eagle-eyed bidders spotted a significant discovery contained therein.

An original watercolour of the 'Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry fetched nearly 10 times its low estimate, selling for a record £240,000 hammer.

Tiny portrait thought to show a Spanish noblewoman was bought at a local school in the 1970s

The most remarkable result at Cheffins’ Fine Art Sale in Cambridge was provided by a group of four ‘English School’ plumbago on vellum portrait miniatures.