International (print edition)

The South African auction scene is heavily dependent on the work of the handful of painters who played a key role in shaping the nation’s art in the first half of the 20th century.

Generating plenty of competition at Bonhams Skinner (28% buyer’s premium) was this lot of three pieces of Elkington & Co silver plate.

Lacklustre pre-sale activity leaves Canadian auction house concerned but all 17 lots sell successfully

AH Wilkens (22% buyer’s premium) worded the lot notes carefully.

Two 20th century posters in quite different genres set records at auction in early March.

Though leeches do remain in the pharmacopeia, they’re no longer stored in the ceramic jars and urns common to pharmacies of the 18th and 19th century.

Samuel FB Morse (1791-1872) is today best known for his contributions to the creation of the single-wire telegraph system and the co-creator of the Morse code.

High quality sporting cups for Cowes Week yachting and Indian horse racing sell to American bidders

A hitherto unknown c.1902 lithographic poster for Buffalo Bill’s famed Wild West show hammered for $40,000 (£29,510) at Morphy Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) in Las Vegas.

Witherell (25/26% buyer’s premium) in Sacramento, California, posted healthy results for two markedly different lots of British origin: a scarce sporting cartridge advertising display and a silver epergne.

The 1931 etching, drypoint, and aquatint titled Two Beauties by French artist Louis Icart (1888-1950) features subjects he knew and loved.

Eton pupil and Cambridge graduate Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879-1972) threw himself into art studies in Paris and ultimately became a successful society portraitist.

Within a matter of a week, two US auction houses sold works of Russian decorative art from the era of Tsar Nicholas II for six-figure sums.

A piece of British naval history and polar exploration history appeared at Millea Bros (25% buyer’s premium) in Boonton, New Jersey.

The artist Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950) is considered one of the most important figures in 20th century American Egyptology.

Prices for the 19th century Polish genre painter Simeon (Szymon) Buchbinder moved to a new level at a sale at Blank (22% buyer’s premium) in Bad Vilbel, near Frankfurt.

Although he produced numerous bronze figures for public monuments and decorative elements for religious building, the German sculptor Ewald Mataré (1887-1965) is best known for his numerous figures of cows in a multitude of styles from realistic to cubistic.

It has been some years since a good piece of Vizagapatam furniture turned up at a German auction, so it was quite an event when Bieberle (21.42% buyer’s premium) in Magdeburg offered a writing cabinet.

While two early Märklin carousels went round and round, the bids at Hohenstaufen (24.5% buyer’s premium) in Göppingen went up and up.

Stehende Frau (Standing Woman) by Georg Kolbe soared to a new record at Grisebach (32% buyer’s premium) in Berlin.