News

A house visit in north Derbyshire unearthed a treasure trove, with every room cluttered with porcelain figures.

This first edition, first issue of ‘The Great Gatsby’ from 1922 is one of the star lots in a sale described by Bloomsbury Auctions as “one of the most important collections of modern first editions to come onto the market in the last ten years”.

Despite being called a ‘Black Forest’ carving, this late 19th century figure by Johann Huggler of Brienz, of a poacher with dead deer, gun and a dog at his feet, the base carved with rabbits and birds, was actually produced in Switzerland rather than Bavaria.

Edward S. Curtis’ monumental photographic study of ‘The North American Indian’ was one of the most expensive and ambitious undertakings in the history of book production, comprising 20 illustrated text volumes and 20 folios of larger photographic plates.

Although originally entered into one of the regular weekly sales held by Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet, this striking mid-century glass vessel was plucked from obscurity by a member of staff who recognised it as something worthy of further research.

This year’s Frieze week auction totals in London were largely consistent with 2011, but the much-publicised sale of Eric Clapton’s prize abstract by Gerhard Richter (b.1932) proved crucial in bolstering the overall figures.

Rare early paintings often come to major centres such as London, Paris and New York but later this month it will be the turn of Marseille in the South of France where the Maison de Ventes Leclere will offer a chance to purchase a fragment of an Italian primitive from the early Renaissance.