North America

The second session of the three-day sale at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries on August 23-25 was dominated by the seven-figure performance of a portrait in the manner of Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-69).

An author printed and signed copy of Walt Whitman’s 'Leaves of Grass' sold for $37,500 (£29,400) with buyer’s premium at University Archives.

The children’s author Richard Scarry (1919-94) was at the peak of popularity when he published 'Nicky Goes to the Doctor' in 1972.

The 504-lot book sale at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) in Chicago on July 25 was topped by a four-volume set of one of the great records of the Gilded Age.

The top lot in the American Historical Ephemera and Photography Online sale at Freeman’s Hindman (27/21/15% buyer’s premium) in Chicago was an album published in 1886 to mark the death of President Ulysses S Grant.

Library items shelved away in now closed college include some of the first North American histories

The 14in (35cm) high giraffe and stag centrepiece, designed at the peak of the majolica boom c.1875, is considered the most coveted of all George Jones models.

A US auction house that was forced to halt the sale of a collection of drawings by King of Pop Michael Jackson (1958- 2009) at the last minute has said it fully intends to sell the works at a later date.

Spotlight on copy sold in superb Strutz collection – plus a look at other recent results for the Tolkien classic

William Strutz’s library built within his home in Bismarck, North Dakota, consisted of some 15,000 books, which the attorney began assembling while in college in the late 1950s

Following the Franco-Prussian War, when Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by Germany, workers at the Sarreguemines factory rejected German nationality and brought important technical skills and artistry to Choisy-le-Roi.

The swan-form sad iron is a favourite of iron collectors and has been much reproduced.

The colours and designs of Qing dynasty robes were designed to convey rank and entitlement.