International

Catching the eye in a German auction was a fine example of the most beautiful of all piscatorial plate books.

Listing of auctions coming up in Australia.

“If I was to select just one lot we have sold this year,” says John Albrecht, managing director at Leonard Joel, “it would be the haunting, period photo of Australia’s infamous bushranger, Ned Kelly, taken in 1874 after a boxing match.”

Leading New Zealand firm Webb’s – established by Auckland gallery owner Peter Webb in 1976 – became part of Mossgreen in October 2014. Two businessmen and art collectors from the city, Ewen Mackenzie-Bowie and Bruce Qin, rescued the saleroom earlier this year following the collapse of the parent company and a regular calendar of sales is now in operation from new premises in Mount Eden.

Presented to Captain William Lonsdale (1799-1864) in 1842 by the people of Melbourne in recognition of his services to the founding colony, the Lonsdale Silver Presentation has remained in his descendants’ care for 176 years.

After almost a decade of flatlining annual sales and the collapse of Mossgreen, Australia’s auctioneers are vocal about the improving market.

Since the first Festival of Music and the Arts took place in 1951, the annual Wexford Festival Opera in the south-east Irish town has specialised in neglected works and has become one of the world’s leading opera festivals.

Science fiction is the theme for the 110-dealer BiblioMania in Paris’ 17th arrondissement, held at the Espace Champerret from Wednesday to Sunday, October 17-21.

The Viennese auction house Im Kinsky has acquired a broad selection of works of art for its sale of October 23-24. The oldest objects are three Apulian terracotta ewers (oinochoe) from around 315-310BC.

The pair to the famous ‘Bainbridge vase’ sold in Hong Kong on October 3 for HK$130m (£12.75m) plus premium. Five bidders competed for the lot.

Even when the Cold War was at its height there were, admittedly rare, possibilities for commercial cooperation between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

A rare example of Bauhaus design is coming up for sale at Bassenge in Berlin in the auction of October 16-18.

Winter is putting in an early appearance at Dorotheum in Vienna in the sale of Old Master paintings on October 23 in the shape of a 20in x 2ft 2in (52 x 66cm) oak panel Allegory of Winter, painted by Flemish artist Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573-1647).

ATG’s calendar of auctions taking place in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in autumn 2018.