Auctions

A portrait of a 16th century Protestant theologian and reformer surfaced at a sale at Ginhart (23% buyer’s premium) in Tegernsee, some 35 miles south of the Bavarian capital Munich.

The Parisian clockmaker Henri Lioret (1848-1938) entered the market for ‘talking machines’ in an unconventional fashion – his first patented device of 1893 was a talking doll.

This 8½in (21cm) Delft blue and white tulip vase below is typical in style and form of the De Metale Pot (The Metal Pot) factory.

The Chad Valley tinplate toy 'The Climbing Miller' is based closely on an earlier ‘gravity’ toy called 'Gustav the Busy Miller' that was one of Lehmann’s most popular issues made for close to 50 years in the pre-war era.

A sizeable collection of 18th and 19th century New York views, maps and maritime prints belonging to the Down Town Association, an historic private club located in Manhattan’s financial district, was the focus of a sale held by Arader Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

While the Japanese woodblock print artist Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764) is credited with the first use of one-point perspective in the depiction of interior spaces, a technique previously known only in Western art, his colleague Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814) achieved even greater fame when he mastered the creation of perspective prints of outdoor scenes, known as Uki-e.

Bid way over estimate to sell at £1400 in a recent online sale was a 1912, Cuala Press first of WB Yeats’ 'The Green Helmet and other Poems'.

Painting went through lengthy ownership saga before being returned to family and then sold.

A veritable pantheon of Greek gods adorns this partly gilt silver tankard which is coming up for sale in an auction at Im Kinsky in Vienna on June 23-25.

Sixteen upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK.

A group of portrait miniatures sold recently by John Nicholson’s (30/25% buyer’s premium) in Haslemere, Surrey included this English school image, c.1700, of William Fermor, 1st Baron Leominster.

One of the central attractions in Rome is the Piazza Navona and the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers). It was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1650 at the behest of Pope Innocent X.

Our regular listing of British and Irish book auctions (online only at present because of the Covid-19 alert).

An elaborate late-19th century engraved rock crystal, parcel-gilt, gemset and enamelled silver figural centrepiece made c.1880 by the Viennese firm of Hermann Ratzersdorfer was the catalogue cover lot of the Heritage (25 /20/12.5% buyer’s premium) silver and vertu auction in Dallas.