Europe

Cologne auction house Lempertz (25% buyer’s premium) opened its auction year with a sale of African and Oceanic works of art in Brussels.

Soon after the Italian coin engraver Benedetto Pistrucci moved to England in 1815, he received a prestigious task from William Wellesley-Pole, the Master of the Mint. He was commissioned with the creation of a series of new gold coins for George III.

Among the technically most complex pieces ever created in the porcelain manufacture in Meissen were the so-called 'Schneeballen-Vasen' (snowball vases).

The Barbier-Mueller family is well known as a collecting dynasty, especially for its ethnographic art.

A faience dinner service that belonged to the famous French novelist George Sand sold for €7000 (£5980) at the Rouillac (24% buyer’s premium inc tax) auction on February 10.

Portrait of monarch impresses as château of the Comtes de Marcellus delivers treasures to auction

An ensemble of modernist rosewood furniture by the designer and architect Pierre Chareau (1883-1950) is to be offered by Valoir Pousse-Cornet auction house.

The impact of Brexit on UK overseas trade has led one auction house to open a saleroom in the Netherlands.

Auction firms in France followed a more traditional course in 2023 according to the latest figures.

In Ireland, Adam’s of Dublin held 32 auctions over the course of 2023, raising a hammer total of €13.8m (£12m) which was up from €12.6m in 2022.

The bright blue iridescent feathers of the kingfisher have been used to decorate objects and jewellery and items of personal adornment for over 2000 years in China, where the birds are also known as jade or jadeite birds.

Two exceptional pieces of Venini glass surfaced at auction in the final days of 2023 on different sides of the Atlantic.

A “true gentleman”, who was “full of cheerfulness, good humour”, and with a “ready smile”, are some of the words used on rip.ie to describe the late George Mealy, who died on December 22.

As well as being an artist’s model and gallery owner who founded the museum dedicated to the work of the sculptor Aristide Maillol, Dina Vierny was also known as a collector of antique dolls.