Auctions

Always likely to produce one of the sale’s best results, a 1798 first of Thomas Malthus’ 'Essay on the Principle of Population' duly led the bidding in a recent German sale.

In 1916 around 500 copies of the historic ‘Proclamation of the Irish Republic’ were printed, of which today just 30 or so survivors are recorded.

Unearthed in a group lot at Lindsay Burns (20% buyer’s premium) in Perth, this Roman marbled Samian ware bowl is believed to closely relate to another in the British Museum.

Estimated at Zar20,000-30,000, this 11in (28cm) ‘crane and deer’ famille rose pear-shaped vase sold for Zar2m (£91,800) at Stephan Welz (14% plus VAT buyer’s premium) in Cape Town.

With so many auction houses selling jewellery throughout late July and August this year, there was scarcely a summer break. However, the volume of material offered for sale will increase markedly this month. Pictured here is a brief selection of pieces available to bid for at home and abroad.

A 176-lot group of Meissen and other European porcelain from the collection of Dr Siegfried Ducret, consigned from the estate of Rosmarie Schmidt-Ducret, will be offered at auction by Koller in Zurich on September 24.

This elegant pair of finely worked early Hellenistic gold bracelets featuring a rather sympathetic and graceful rendering of the snake-haired gorgon Medusa are believed to have been made by a courtly goldsmith workshop during the 4th-3rd century BC.

This c.1912 poster from the Buffalo Bill-Pawnee Bill film Company advertises a three-reel silent film by Paul Panzer on the life of the Wild West showman and depicts him on horseback with a Native American family and a tepee.

MADAM – I fully endorse Alan Sturrock’s concerns over multiple lots in auctions (Letters, ATG No 2457).

This month’s Asian art series in New York could be the last sales to avoid the new trade tariffs that have been imposed by the Trump administration.

This terracotta group of Bacchus and Ariadne was once associated with the Florentine late Baroque sculptor Giambattista Foggini (1652-1725) but is now thought to be his contemporary Giuseppe Piamontini (1664-1742).

The Northern Wei dynasty (386-534 AD), founded by the nomadic Tuoba clan, was the most long-lived and most powerful of the northern dynasties prior to the reunification of China under the Sui. Most importantly for Chinese art history, the ruling royal family were converts to Buddhism.

A Victorian taxidermy case of four New Zealand birds by Rowland Ward of Piccadilly sold for an unexpected £7000 (estimate £100-200) at Windsor Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) in Berkshire.

A group of three watercolours depicting Indian scenes attributed to Major General John Brownrigg Ballasis (1806-90) attracted interest at a timed sale held this summer by 1818 Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) in Milnthorpe, Cumbria.