International (print edition)

Painted in 1857, 'Young Boy Blowing Bubbles' by John Thomas Peele (1822-97) pre-dates by a generation Sir John Everett Millais’ 1886 oil Bubbles (A Child’s World) made famous in advertisements for Pear’s soap.

After what Sloans & Kenyon (23% buyer’s premium) president Stephanie Kenyon deemed “furious bidding that lasted at least five minutes”, a textbook equestrian painting by Benjamin Marshall (1767-1865) trotted to a fine result.

A recent sale at Shapiro Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) included a picture that would have been familiar to admirers of Spanish Surrealism.

A rare preparatory study by Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec (1864-1901) for one of his famous lithographic posters proved to be the highlight of the 20/21 Century Art evening sale at Christie’s (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) in Paris.

A finely crafted Louis XIV period mirror frame attributed to the skilled royal cabinetmaker Jean Armand was one of the star performers in the Classics sale held in Paris by Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr (28/27/21/14.5% buyer’s premium).

French firm holds auctions relating to earlier monarchy and Napoleon

In 1948, Finnish designer Paavo Tynell (1890-1973) undertook one of the most ambitious projects of his career.

A well-documented George III eight-drawer drum library table attributed to Gillows hammered for $75,000 (£56,300) at Andrew Jones (25% buyer’s premium) in Los Angeles.

Guided at $60,000-80,000, a Yixing stoneware ‘aubergine’ cup was the breakout star of Freeman’s Hindman (26% buyer’s premium) Asian Works of Art sale in New York, held during the Spring 2025 Asia Week.

Series of three sales at Stair followed four ‘tough act to follow’ auctions held at Sotheby’s also in the US

PBA Galleries (25% buyer’s premium) cataloguer Bill Taylor discovered a poster for a 'Jazz Poetry Trio' event in Greenwich Village in a group of flyers relating to the San Francisco poet Philip Lamantia (1927-2005).

Ohio auction specialist Bridget McWilliams was on site at a Cleveland estate when a pair of tarnished metal centrepieces with fanciful curlicued handles caught her eye.

International museum and institutional interest is always a feature of the Salon du Dessin but this year it was even more marked with nearly 500 curators attending.

Sheet of various figures and body parts in red and white chalk set an auction record for Primaticcio

Silverware with connections to key figures from the famous French firm of Puiforcat proved to be a major component in a sale of items from a Parisian family collection held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium).

Painting of a cabinet includes letter fixed to the door with possible mention of Grand Duke Cosimo III

The evolution of Berlin porcelain – produced by Royal Porcelain Factory founded in 1763 by King Frederick II of Prussia – was well illustrated by two vases which both went way over the estimates in recent sales.

A floral still-life by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, discovered only recently in a European private collection, was one of the stars at a recent sale at Koller (25/22% buyer’s premium) in Zurich.

Two enticingly estimated, early glasses from a west German private collection were fiercely contested in the online sale held by Wendl (21% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt.