International

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.

The French clockmaker Antide Janvier, who constructed his first mechanical globe when he was only 15, is primarily famous for his highly complex astronomical clocks and planetaria.

One of two near identical artworks that Frank Frazetta made in 1970 for the dust jacket of a Doubleday re-issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars has sold in a Dallas auction for $1m (£781,250).

On November 18 Van Ham in Cologne will hold a Decorative Art auction which will include several more items from the collection of Thomas Olbricht.

Dorotheum’s auction of wrist and pocket watches in Vienna on November 27 includes this Rolex Dato Compax ref 4768.

A tragic shipwreck provided the Danish marine painter Anton Melbye and his colleague John William Bottomley, a German of Irish origin, with a dramatic subject for their 2ft x 2ft 11in (60 x 90cm) oil painting The Wreck of the Anglo Saxon from 1863.

Although the rise of the internet during the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a number of galleries moving online, many have also decided to persist with their bricks and mortar approach. Here are two businesses building up their physical presence in the face of ongoing uncertainty.

Modern paintings and whole wunderkammer from a closed museum deliver sell-out response

The latest online sale of Clocks, Watches, & Scientific Instruments held by Skinner (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Marlborough, Massachusetts included two of perhaps only 50 surviving Tornek-Rayville TR-900 stainless steel dive watches.

Auction houses in Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland are adjusting their sales calendars to accommodate the latest set of Covid-19 restrictions.

Paris auction group Hôtel Drouot has reorganised its operations and will soon allow non-shareholder businesses to operate from its premises.

A rare scent bottle designed by one of the leading figures in the French Art Nouveau movement was the highlight of a sale of perfume bottles and jewellery held by Copages (23% buyer’s premium) at Drouot in Paris.

Robert Aronson runs Dutch family business Aronson Anitquairs, which launched in 1881 and today specialises in Delftware.

The rare Ankwe terracotta figure is attributed to ceramicist Azume of Goemai, who died c.1951. Her figures were made for women and important locals, and two other examples – the only others known – currently reside in The British Museum.

A number of six-figure prices for rare and interesting items were achieved when French auction house Rouillac (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) staged its 32nd Garden Party sale.

A 1776 first of Adam Smith’s '…Wealth of Nations' sold in a New York summer sale bore an understandably irritated inscription by the man to whom it had been gifted by its author.

Pictured here is one of a pair of Art Deco consoles by Gilbert Poillerat (1902-88) from c.1938 that will feature in a sale of 20th century Decorative Arts to be held by Tajan in its Paris rooms on November 17.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions.