International (print edition)

A two-day sale devoted to works of American and international interest is scheduled for September 14-15 at Pook & Pook in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

Imperial souvenirs, Expressionist portraits and metalware from Augsburg and Iran were among the recent highlights at sales in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

A rare set of four door panel promotional posters for 'Help!', the Beatles’ second film, will form part of a movie poster sale to be held by Heritage Auctions on July 28-29.

Swann Galleries is offering its largest-ever selection of posters promoting food and drink in the firm’s August 1 auction of vintage posters, with more than 75 examples available.

Over 20 years ago, leading art and antiques dealers in the picturesque Bavarian city of Bamberg came up with the idea of holding a coordinated summer sales exhibition.

Magic lanterns, peep shows and various other optical illusory and viewing devices will be on sale at a specialist Cologne auction firm offering photographic, scientific and collectors’ apparatus.

Vincennes, Sèvres and Meissen are among the stars of a Paris and London auction spotlight.

Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) main summer sale of European ceramics took place at its Bond Street rooms on July 5. On offer were 245 lots which raised a hammer total of just under £600,000, with a 62% take-up.

There has long been a tradition of summer sales in Monaco, with an emphasis on the luxury goods area of the market: jewellery, watches, handbags and cars. Here are a few stand-out lots coming up.

The Paris high season is a time when classic sales of traditional fare are as much to the fore as buoyant sectors such as Asian, contemporary and modern and tribal art.

Newly formed Australian firm Abacus Auctions holds its second sale on July 22, devoted to coins and banknotes plus a selection of collectables and sporting memorabilia.

This portrait of Maria Luisa Maldonado, Marquesa de Torneros (1907) by the Valencian artist Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) is a highlight of the next auction series at Ansorena to be held from July 17-19.

Stuttgart auction house Nagel (33% buyer’s premium) held its summer sale of Asian art in Salzburg having acquired an impressive array of quality pieces from European and other collections.

Having successfully dispersed the collection of Lalique glass formed by Hans and Gertrud Mueller in March this year, Sotheby’s Australia is now selling the couple’s collection of other European Art Glass.

It took less than five minutes for a work by Max Beckmann (1884-1950) to become the most expensive painting ever sold at a German auction.

Germany’s most expensive painting sold at auction, an unusual early firearm and a fin de siècle snake charmer are among the highlights featured here from recent auctions in Munich, Berlin and Cologne.

The post-war industrial modernist designs of Jean Prouvé and Charlotte Perriand remain firm sellers. Pieces from their best-documented commissions, like the furnishings created in the 1950s for the student residences of the Cité Universitaire in Paris, are particularly strong.

In the immediate post-war era the work of the French designer-decorator Jean Royère (1902-81) took a turn to embrace a more organic or ‘biomorphic’ style.

Most high-flying ‘design’ is made in multiples. These can be limited editions in short runs but, as some of the most iconic pieces have been produced in their millions, their commercial value is typically vested in early examples or prototypes.

Post-war material is attracting growing interest across all sectors of the art market. A pioneer was the Design sale that championed the creations of designers and taste makers from the second half of the 20th century and beyond.