Europe

A notable Irish hunting painting that emerged at Fonsie Mealy (25% buyer’s premium including VAT) at the end of last year drew “very spirited bidding” according to the Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny saleroom.

Working in Japanese urushi lacquer requires patience. Harvested from the sap of the Rhus verniciflua tree, it is built up slowly, layer by layer, each stage requiring careful drying and polishing under controlled conditions.

Pairing old with new has become a familiar tactic in the art market.

The long-running BRAFA Art Fair in Brussels is traditionally one of the earliest events in the international art fair calendar.

When a 16th century white marble bust of an elderly man with a furrowed brow and resolute gaze came up for sale at Nagel (29.5% buyer’s premium) in Stuttgart, it was clear that more than one bidder was confident of knowing either the identity of the artist or that of the subject.

Every one of the 300 vases and figures from German collection gets away on the day

An astronomical compendium sold at Rehm (22% buyer’s premium) in Augsburg contained everything that a 16th or 17th scholar of the heavens needed for observations.

It was little surprise that Kinsky (25% buyer’s premium) in Vienna was given the legacy of Michael Kovacek, a specialist dealer in Art Nouveau and Art Deco, to sell.

Irish silver rarely appears at German auctions but when it does, it seldom goes unnoticed.

Numerous bidders at a Peter Karbstein (25% buyer’s premium) auction in Düsseldorf took a fancy to a 19th century marble statue of The Flight from Pompeii.

A hand-cranked movie camera from 1908 was one of the stars at a recent sale at Auction Team Breker (21.8% buyer’s premium) in Cologne.

The arts and crafts of colonial America are enjoying a purple patch in the market as Western institutions seek to tell the story of Latin American art in more inclusive and expansive ways

When he was not crafting lacquer works, the 18th century Japanese artist Ogawa Haritsu spent his time, painting, creating pottery and composing haiku poems.

In his workshop records for the period October 1739 to January 1740, Johann Joachim Kaendler, Meissen’s most accomplished modeller, noted his creation of a “life-sized jay sitting on a trunk, naturally depicted, next to him is a life-sized squirrel seated on a branch, modelled in clay, along with other appropriate ornamentation”.

The combination of a master cabinetmaker, a good provenance and a modest estimate made a prolonged bidding match for a late 18th century writing desk more or less inevitable.

Security-minded German collectors were very keen to acquire pieces from a collection of historic metalwork that was offered by Van Ham (27% buyer’s premium) in Cologne.

Karl & Faber’s (27% buyer’s premium) latest auction of Old Master prints in Munich was its most successful sale of this type for many decades, achieving several new German records.