Germany

Geble auction house in Radolfzell, on the shores of Lake Constance, has an intriguing work by the renowned French craftsman Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751- 1843) in its October 20 auction.

Autumn in the Bavarian capital Munich is traditionally fair time. Shortly after the Oktoberfest closes, exhibitors at two art and antique fairs are hoping for masses of equally enthusiastic visitors.

From the very beginning of his career as an independent silversmith in the late 18th century, the London craftsman Paul Storr received numerous noble and royal commissions. He was the foremost artisan in his field from the early 1790s until the late 1830s and supplied most of the silverware purchased by the royal household during this period.

Among the more sizeable lots at the auction on October 19-20 at Kaupp in Sulzburg near the Black Forest is an early 20th century stained glass window, measuring 10ft 2in x 5ft 11in (3.09 x 1.8m).

On October 27 Lehr in Berlin is selling this 14 x 14in (36 x 35cm) bronze relief, a self-portrait by Paul Gauguin.

It has not been a vintage season for armour in the saleroom, but some of the recent highlights from London and Munich are shown here.

It took a bid of €60,000 (£53,100) to secure a pair of flintlock pistols of c.1730 from the armoury of the Princes of Lobkowitz at Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich in May.

Imperial souvenirs, Expressionist portraits and metalware from Augsburg and Iran were among the recent highlights at sales in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Among the thousands of lots in Hermann Historica’s (25% buyer’s premium) May sales series in Munich, one of the highlights was this gold inlaid karud from Turkestan which sold at €29,000 (£25,665).

Over 20 years ago, leading art and antiques dealers in the picturesque Bavarian city of Bamberg came up with the idea of holding a coordinated summer sales exhibition.

Magic lanterns, peep shows and various other optical illusory and viewing devices will be on sale at a specialist Cologne auction firm offering photographic, scientific and collectors’ apparatus.

A Washington DC appeals court has upheld a decision to allow a ‘Nazi forced sale’ claim against a collection of medieval devotional art to go to trial in the US.

It took less than five minutes for a work by Max Beckmann (1884-1950) to become the most expensive painting ever sold at a German auction.

Germany’s most expensive painting sold at auction, an unusual early firearm and a fin de siècle snake charmer are among the highlights featured here from recent auctions in Munich, Berlin and Cologne.

Bound together, first editions of both parts of the 1679-83 edition of Maria Sybilla Merian’s study of caterpillars and their transformation into butterflies, Der Raupen…, sold to a Danish bidder for €42,000 (£32,060) in a sale held by Ketterer Kunst (23% buyer’s premium) of Hamburg.

Bid to a record €18,000 (£15,660) in a May 15-17 series of sales held by Reiss & Sohn (18% buyer’s pemium) of Königstein, near Frankfurt, was a first edition of Immanuel Kant’s 'Critik der reinen Vernunft'.

Shown below is one of 20 hand-coloured plates from 'Masken des Römischen Carnevals'. This was a rare and separate 1790 Weimar issue of the plates that illustrated a work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Roman carnivals published the previous year – an item that is itself a great rarity*.

Bid to €60,000 (£53,100) in a March 16 sale held by Venator & Hanstein (23% buyer’s premium) was a group of letters sent by Charles Darwin in the 1860s and ‘70s to a German botanist, Friedrich Hildebrand.

Old Masters and post-Impressionist paintings, vintage luggage and the almost inevitable Asian artefacts all appeared among the best-sellers in the recent round of auctions held across Germany and Switzerland.