International

The marathon 12-hour 'Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence' auction of jewellery and works of art from the Al Thani family held in New York last month was a once-in-a-generation event.

Alexis Pentcheff's gallery in Marseille offers 19th and 20th century paintings.

Top lot in a June 6 sale of maps, natural history and other colour plate books held in New York was a rare map by Lewis Evans of what were then still the ‘Middle British Colonies’ in America.

Jackson’s of Cedar Falls, Iowa, has a reputation for selling Russian works of art. Its sale on July 30 will include 19 lots from the collection of William Garner Welbon (1866-1960) that have remained with his family.

The Hammerhead shark plate shown below is not as colourful as many of the other 432 featured in a generally fine and complete copy of Marcus Elieser Bloch’s Ichthyologie… sold recently, but certainly one of the more eye-catching.

Two previously unpublished watercolours painted by Lady Anne Barnard (1750-1825) during her momentous visit to the Cape of Good Hope emerged for sale at Stephan Welz & Co in South Africa earlier this month. They came for sale from the descendants of Lady Anne who had owned them since 1966.

A Louis XV period rococo commode made in 1744 for the Château de Versailles has returned home after more than 30 years out of France.

Our listing of British and Irish book auctions taking place from July 16-27, 2019.

Far and away the highest result for an Asian work of art in recent sales in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was the spectacular price of SFr4.2m (£3.3m) achieved by Koller in Zurich for a Chinese bronze censer (see front page, ATG No 2397).

Since the late 1880s, opera fans have braved the often intense heat of the summer to visit the Wagner festival in Bayreuth.

The Patriotic War of 1812 stirred up powerful feelings of national pride in Russia.

At a €2.7m (£2.45m) hammer price, a 17th century Flemish flower painting was the toast of the Old Master picture results in Paris this year. It was also the highest price recorded at the Drouot auction centre so far for 2019.

Stand-out lot in a recent Irish sale was one of the 100 special copies of Ulysses printed on Dutch handmade paper by Van Gelder that James Joyce signed on publication in Paris in 1922.

Spectators at an auction in Zürich were left flabbergasted when a Quattrocento panel painting with a SFr5000-7000 estimate catalogued as ‘in the style of Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510)’ was knocked down at SFr6.4m (£5.16m) after an intense 10-minute bidding battle.

In September the Paris auction scene wakes up from its long summer slumber to get back into action for the approaching autumn and winter season.

Works produced in the 1940s by Al Hirschfeld figured prominently among the higher priced lots at a June 4 Illustration Art sale held in New York.

September will be a key date in the diary for the French auction firm Osenat, which has announced its expansion with an extra venue and several new departments.