Auctions

The night, just three months before her death, that Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in sultry tones at a Democratic Party fundraiser celebrating John F Kennedy’s 45th birthday caused quite a sensation.

A fascinating archive of manuscripts, ephemera and artefacts relating to the life and career of the great actor, playwright and theatrical manager David Garrick sold for a far higher than predicted £90,000 at Bonhams (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on November 15.

‘Stage Coach Passengers passing Woburn Sands’ is one of 100 coloured engraved caricatures after Isaac Cruikshank that illustrate GM Woodward’s Eccentric Excursions or Literary and Pictorial Sketches in England and South Wales, interspersed with Curious Anecdotes of 1807.

While English ceramics feature in most provincial sales, November provided four auctions where the market could be looked at overall.

Realistically modelled crib figures are a particular speciality of southern European countries – the Santons of Provence being one well-known example. Another is the famous presepe figures from Naples.

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War sold for £29,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Mallams Oxford on December 8.

Strong competition emerged for an oil sketch for Eugène Delacroix’s 'Liberty Leading the People' at Christie’s in London on December 14.

A copy of the first published work of the Brontë sisters sold for a record sum at Sotheby’s (25/20/12/5% buyer’s premium) on November 7, just a few months after a new high had been set at another London auction.

The photographic archive of Emile Zola (1840-1902) was offered by Artcurial (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 4 with over 90% of the 75 lots changing hands.

The famous photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson are no strangers to salerooms but it is not every day that you find 120 lots being offered from a single-owner collection.

A ‘rediscovered’ fifth copy of Martin Waldseemüller’s globe gores from c.1507 was withdrawn from sale last week after a group of academics and dealers in the US expressed doubts over its authenticity.

2017 produced some eye-catching prices in the UK’s regional salerooms. Here are some stand-out lots...

René Lalique’s jewellery showing his characteristic but highly distinctive interpretation of Art Nouveau finds plenty of keen fans.

More than 400 lots of railwayana, assembled from the 1950s onwards by a single collector, will be offered at Norfolk auction house TW Gaze on January 5.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period December 7-13, 2017. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

A selection of the leading lots sold above estimate via thesaleroom.com in 2017 suggests a thriving online market for the esoteric...

Haute Epoque, the French term given to early, largely pre-Renaissance, works of art, especially sculpture, featured in several Parisian sales in the winter high season.