US

The first mention of plans for a Wedgwood earthenware chess set occurs in a bill from a 30-year-old John Flaxman dated March 8, 1785.

If the period from the 19th to early 20th century was the ‘golden age’ for carriage clocks, it was equally a superb age for pocket watches

Samuel FB Morse (1791-1872) is today best known for his contributions to the creation of the single-wire telegraph system and the co-creator of the Morse code.

High quality sporting cups for Cowes Week yachting and Indian horse racing sell to American bidders

A hitherto unknown c.1902 lithographic poster for Buffalo Bill’s famed Wild West show hammered for $40,000 (£29,510) at Morphy Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) in Las Vegas.

Witherell (25/26% buyer’s premium) in Sacramento, California, posted healthy results for two markedly different lots of British origin: a scarce sporting cartridge advertising display and a silver epergne.

The 1931 etching, drypoint, and aquatint titled Two Beauties by French artist Louis Icart (1888-1950) features subjects he knew and loved.

This seven-panel peepshow, an elaborate advertising campaign for Shell Oil, is offered for $2850 by Philip Salmon & Company at the Ephemera Society of America’s annual fair.

Eton pupil and Cambridge graduate Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879-1972) threw himself into art studies in Paris and ultimately became a successful society portraitist.

Within a matter of a week, two US auction houses sold works of Russian decorative art from the era of Tsar Nicholas II for six-figure sums.

A piece of British naval history and polar exploration history appeared at Millea Bros (25% buyer’s premium) in Boonton, New Jersey.

The artist Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950) is considered one of the most important figures in 20th century American Egyptology.

The value of exports of antiques from Britain to the US may have fallen by as much as 49% since US President Donald Trump began his tariff announcements in April 2025.

Coinciding with the latest Old Master auction series in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, announced the acquisition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy.

Pristine first editions from sought-after authors or documents written by the luminaries of times past are usually the ones that command the greatest attention at book auctions.

Records continue to tumble in the vibrant US market. Hardly a week goes by without another new marker being established as comics thrive in a remarkably buoyant collectables collecting scene, or sought-after high-grade copies attract rocketing prices.

High selling rates, prices beating estimates and decent auction totals suggest the market is in a good place

A newly discovered prime period work by Indian Modernist Akbar Padamsee (1928-2020) comes for sale at Roland Auctions in New York state on March 28.