Germany

There was unexpected demand for a lock of hair from an Austrian poet and dramatist which came up for sale at Bassenge (30% buyer’s premium) in Berlin from October 6-8 with a guide of €4500.

One of the biggest attractions at the Exposition Universelle, held in Paris in 1878, was Le Grand Ballon Captif, a huge tethered balloon, constructed by Baptiste Henri Jacques Giffard, a pioneer of airship travel.

A pair of monumental silver candelabra with a royal provenance is going under the hammer at German auction house Wendl on October 28-31.

No self-respecting clock enthusiast was going to let an early 19th century precision longcase clock get away for the guide of €1000 in an auction held by Historia (27% buyer’s premium) in Berlin.

The Bavarian artist Adam Albrecht (1786-1862), head of a family of successful painters, was known primarily for his depictions of battles, several of which he had experienced first-hand.

An early ceramic work by Otto Lindig was one of the stars at a recent sale at Mehlis (24% buyer’s premium) in Plauen.

Paintings by the Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch seldom make it to market and when they do, regularly command six-figure and on occasions even seven-figure prices.

Vending machine and music box could once be found on railway station platforms to serve passengers

Since 1925 the Deutsches Museum in Munich has been exhibiting a complex and highly decorated 18th century calculating machine that bears the inscription Braun Invenit – Vayringe Fecit.

The multi-talented Belgian designer and architect Henry van de Velde spent many of his most productive years in the east German city of Weimar, where he lived and worked from 1899-1917.

Although he was rejected by the Berlin art academy, Eduard Hildebrandt, who was born in Danzig in 1818, went on to become one of the most celebrated landscape painters of his time. He was without doubt one of the most widely travelled.

Portrait miniatures by the renowned British artist face a different and difficult modern mindset

Neumeister (25% buyer’s premium), a stalwart of the German auction market, held its last auction in Munich this summer.

For over 300 years, 12 generations of the Liechti family in the northern Swiss town of Winterthur built clocks.

In retrospect, it was a blessing for Victor-Gabriel Gilbert (1847-1935) that his parents did not have the money to finance his training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Toy specialist Lankes (25% buyer’s premium) in the small Bavarian town of Döhlau could harvest a bumper crop of good results during its sale of July 20-24.

Hargesheimer (25% buyer’s premium) in Düsseldorf devoted an auction to the sale of 61 works of art from the collection of a couple from Wiesbaden who had spent many decades amassing sculptures and old master paintings.

Scheublein (27% buyer’s premium) offered 1000 lots from the collection of a branch of the Bavarian royal family this summer.

Bidders from as far afield as Saudi Arabia vied for an ancient Egyptian bronze of the deity Osiris at Kunst & Kuriosa (21% buyer’s premium) in Heidelberg.

When it was introduced to the public in 1956 by the electronics company Braun, the compact stereo system Phonosuper was a spectacular design innovation.