North America

For most of the buttoned-up Grand Tourists who visited Florence in the final years of the 19th century, it was only proper to take home a marble copy of a sober Renaissance or antique masterpiece. The Bazzanti or Frilli galleries were the place to go for a David or a Venus.

Sir Henry Doulton placed great importance on international exhibitions to promote the work of both of his factories.

Sale of collection with superb furniture included high-quality 18th century items in a different field

The Saturn table lamp was produced for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. While it is unclear which factory made them (some websites suggest the Houze Glass Company of Port Marion, Pennsylvania), they are considered classics of machine age Art Deco design.

Offered for sale as ‘a Chinese porcelain teapot’ with a $100-1000 estimate, a famille rose Buddhist ewer with a Qianlong mark hammered for $200,000 at Hill Auction Gallery (30/28/25% buyer’s premium) in Sunrise, Florida, on October 29. No date or period was given.

In 1872 PT Barnum’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ became the first circus to travel by rail. It took 65 specially made wagons to haul the production from city to city.

The 1882 Royal Worcester porcelain Patience teapot has become a satirical emblem of the Aesthetic movement.

Late 19th century French or Swiss singing bird boxes are regular auction visitors. Double bird boxes are a much rarer breed.

For the third time in a year, a new auction record for Wedgwood Fairyland lustre has been set by Woody Auction in Douglass, Kansas.

London dealer Kirill Kalinin of AntikBar has launched a vintage poster symposium in New York City.

While nowhere near the level of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s work, later versions are still big sellers

Works by Ambrosius Benson and an unknown artist possibly from Antwerp go way beyond estimates

Alexander Anapolsky, co-owner of Akiba Galleries (28% buyer’s premium) in Dania Beach, Florida, described an Indonesian or Malaysian kris found in a New York City estate as a compelling object with great presence.

The Philadelphia Show will not take place next year.

New York dealer Howard L Rehs, president of Rehs Galleries Inc and a respected authority on 19th and early 20th century French academic art, died on November 19 at the age of 66 following a year-long battle with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease.

Working in the Bowery neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan in the late 19th century, Samuel O’Reilly (1854-1909) transformed the art of tattooing.

Important Irish mahogany furniture returned to market on November 11 when Brunk Auctions in North Carolina sold the so-called Mississippi Rococo collection of Jerold D Krouse.