North America

Painted in 1857, 'Young Boy Blowing Bubbles' by John Thomas Peele (1822-97) pre-dates by a generation Sir John Everett Millais’ 1886 oil Bubbles (A Child’s World) made famous in advertisements for Pear’s soap.

After what Sloans & Kenyon (23% buyer’s premium) president Stephanie Kenyon deemed “furious bidding that lasted at least five minutes”, a textbook equestrian painting by Benjamin Marshall (1767-1865) trotted to a fine result.

A recent sale at Shapiro Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) included a picture that would have been familiar to admirers of Spanish Surrealism.

US auction offers lots ranging from mutiny on the Bounty to polar tales and a starry menu

A well-documented George III eight-drawer drum library table attributed to Gillows hammered for $75,000 (£56,300) at Andrew Jones (25% buyer’s premium) in Los Angeles.

Guy De Rougemont’s 'Nuage' (Cloud) coffee table was among the striking examples of modern design sold at the latest 'TEFAF New York' held from May 9-13 (with an invitation-only preview on May 8).

Guided at $60,000-80,000, a Yixing stoneware ‘aubergine’ cup was the breakout star of Freeman’s Hindman (26% buyer’s premium) Asian Works of Art sale in New York, held during the Spring 2025 Asia Week.

Series of three sales at Stair followed four ‘tough act to follow’ auctions held at Sotheby’s also in the US

PBA Galleries (25% buyer’s premium) cataloguer Bill Taylor discovered a poster for a 'Jazz Poetry Trio' event in Greenwich Village in a group of flyers relating to the San Francisco poet Philip Lamantia (1927-2005).

Ohio auction specialist Bridget McWilliams was on site at a Cleveland estate when a pair of tarnished metal centrepieces with fanciful curlicued handles caught her eye.

An American library has announced the purchase of six “exceptional collections” including letters shedding light on the early British Atlantic slave trade that were originally sold at a UK auction.

TEFAF New York boasted an 11% rise in attendance from last year despite challenging times.

Ship models ruled the waves but railway toys were certainly on track too as two sales held either side of the Pond offered the collection of the late Tony Cuff.