Auctioneers

Always likely to produce one of the sale’s best results, a 1798 first of Thomas Malthus’ 'Essay on the Principle of Population' duly led the bidding in a recent German sale.

In 1916 around 500 copies of the historic ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’ were printed, of which today just 30 or so survivors are recorded.

Unearthed in a group lot at Lindsay Burns (20% buyer’s premium) in Perth, this Roman marbled Samian ware bowl is believed to closely relate to another in the British Museum.

A 176-lot group of Meissen and other European porcelain from the collection of Dr Siegfried Ducret, consigned from the estate of Rosmarie Schmidt-Ducret, will be offered at auction by Koller in Zurich on September 24.

This elegant pair of finely worked early Hellenistic gold bracelets featuring a rather sympathetic and graceful rendering of the snake-haired gorgon Medusa are believed to have been made by a courtly goldsmith workshop during the 4th-3rd century BC.

This month’s Asian art series in New York could be the last sales to avoid the new trade tariffs that have been imposed by the Trump administration.

This terracotta group of Bacchus and Ariadne was once associated with the Florentine late Baroque sculptor Giambattista Foggini (1652-1725) but is now thought to be his contemporary Giuseppe Piamontini (1664-1742).

The Northern Wei dynasty (386-534 AD), founded by the nomadic Tuoba clan, was the most long-lived and most powerful of the northern dynasties prior to the reunification of China under the Sui. Most importantly for Chinese art history, the ruling royal family were converts to Buddhism.

The fine art department of Cumbrian firm Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s is to close with auctioneer Michael Roberts joining Mitchells in Cockermouth.

A group of three watercolours depicting Indian scenes attributed to Major General John Brownrigg Ballasis (1806-90) attracted interest at a timed sale held this summer by 1818 Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) in Milnthorpe, Cumbria.

Bid to €10,000 (£9100) in a timed online sale at Fonsie Mealy (25/20% buyers premium) this summer was a two-volume collection of medical and other receipts compiled by Mrs Mary Leadbeater (1758-1826).

South London auction house decided to press pause but was rewarded with a bumper result

It was catalogued as 18th or 19th century but this 2½ x 3½in (6 x 8.5cm) ivory plaque was more probably a product of medieval Christendom.

Appropriately enough, the very first lot offered in a sale called Eureka! was one that focused on scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, was an autograph manuscript of seven pages of annotated design drawings by Thomas Edison relating to his work on light bulbs.

Although hampered by Covid-19 and the ongoing issues surrounding imports of Chinese works of art, the September series of Asian art auctions in New York appears – like most sales in the US – to be remarkably unscathed by recent geopolitical events.