US

The first lot offered in Potter & Potter’s (20% buyer’s premium) auction in Chicago on September 10 was a 1939 first edition, first printing of 'Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism'.

Josephine Baker (1906-75) was not originally supposed to star in La Revue Négre, the now-legendary Parisian show performed by an all-black US cast recruited from Broadway.

In December 1777, Mohammed bin Abdallah (c.1710-90), Sultan of Morocco, became the first head of state to recognise the United States as an independent country.

First editions of the British author’s follow-up to his first novella are scarce and in high demand

New York saleroom Auctions at Showplace is offering a well-documented Turner watercolour on October 8.

A trove of original Golden Age comic book art, much of it illustrated by female artists, dominated a recent sale at White’s Auctions (22/27% buyer’s premium) in Middleboro, Massachusetts.

The Bedazzled sale held at Lunds (25% buyer’s premium) in Victoria, British Columbia on August 11 lived up to its name.

A set of 24 Art Deco Gallia animalier knife rests hammered for $8000 (£5950) against a guide of $3000-5000 at an Objet sale at Wright (28% buyer’s premium) in Chicago, Illinois.

At last, the US version of Antiques Roadshow has won its first Emmy award.

Weighing in at over 40kg, a toy showpiece was not so Dinky after all.

The auction titled The Collection of a Florida Bibliophile held at Doyle (28% buyer’s premium) included a collection of 18th century peepshows and an original oak viewing box.

Film scholars have described Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon as “the greatest movie never made”.

Sale of 14th amendment document from 1867 coincides with Supreme Court case, happily for vendor

The top lot in Stair’s (31% buyer’s premium) Americana sale had a distinctly British profile.

Top-lot honours in a summer sale of European furniture and decorative arts at Freeman’s (28% buyer’s premium) in Chicago went to a 1903 showpiece Martelé silver punch bowl by Gorham.

An oversize 1881 albumen photograph of Thomas Hill’s painting 'The Last Spike', depicting the instant of the creation of the first continental railroad in the US, rolled to a five-figure sum at Freeman’s (28% buyer’s premium) in Chicago.

'Rumsinterior', a signed, undated oil on canvas by Swiss-born Danish artist Bertha Wegmann (1847-1926), hammered for $24,000 (£17,900) at Stair (31% buyer’s premium).

Described as a “pair of Chinese porcelain candlesticks. Late 19th century” and bearing the modest guide of $600-800, a pair of iron red-decorated holy water vessels hammered for $85,000 (£63,375) at Tremont Auctions (19% buyer’s premium).