Fine Art

A fascinating personal collection of items relating to Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) that sold in a south London auction included what are among the last photographs ever taken of her.

Many of Cyril Edward Power’s (1872-1951) most sought-after subjects for his futurist-style linocuts involve different methods of public transport.

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.

The highest auction prices for Mary Adshead (1904-95) all came at Sotheby’s Olympia back in 2006.

When it was last on public view, at a Berlin exhibition in 1981, the Portrait of a Black Courtier was attributed to the early 18th century Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne.

Plenty of potential takers emerged for an early copy of Leonardo’s 'Madonna of the Rocks' at the Dorotheum (25/20.84% buyer’s premium) sale of Old Masters.

Once believed to be by Rubens, work hidden away during the war is now thought to be a copy by a pupil

A group of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) watercolours and drawings were sold on behalf of the Glasgow Art Club at Lyon & Turnbull’s (26% buyer’s premium) Design since 1860 sale in Edinburgh.

Auctioneer congratulates ex-pat bidder in Welsh as she buys a Kyffin Williams for the first time

Based on his own 50-year collecting odyssey, Iain MacPhail has privately published a hardback catalogue raisonné of the etchings created by the prolific Victorian and early 20th century book illustrators Charles Maurice and Edward Julius Detmold. Here he talks to ATG about his collecting passion.

The biggest surprise of Wendl’s (21% buyer’s premium) extensive general sale in Rudolstadt on October 25-28 was the seemingly never-ending exchange of bids for an early 18th century Old Master which had a starting price of €900.

A private collector in London had his work cut out to secure a painting on offer for €2000-3000 at Nagel (29.5% buyer’s premium) in Stuttgart.

Mother of pearl and olivewood devotional objects were made in Jerusalem in large quantities as tourism to the Holy Land took off in the late 19th and early 20th century.

A bronze from Frederick Edward McWilliam’s (1909-92) Women of Belfast series of sculptures sold for £37,000 at Halls (24% buyer’s premium) on December 6.

Up in North Yorkshire, it was a view of a landscape down south that led Tennants’ (24% buyer’s premium) British, European & Sporting Art sale.

A dealer at Old Spitalfields Antiques Market was surprised by an early morning chance discovery.

It was around 1860 that the trained artist François Willème (1830-1905) began to experiment with photography as a way to create sculpture.

Without doubt, the sensation of the German auction season was the emergence of a sketchbook belonging to the German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich at Grisebach (32/27% buyer’s premium) in Berlin.