London

Sensual, satirical and grotesque: the works of Beresford Egan (1905-84) certainly fit a description of ‘distinctive’.

'Snow on the farmhouses of Les Contamines-Montjoie' has begun to thaw in this oil by Charles-Henri Contencin (1898-1955), part of John Mitchell’s annual 'Peaks and Glaciers' exhibition (January 24-March 8).

Much of the pre-sale interest in the 19th century paintings offered at the major London rooms centred on two landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9% buyer’s premium).

Dated to c.1480, the 5in (12.5cm) tall painting on vellum of ‘King David in Penitence’ shown right was one of two works by the Master of the Houghton Miniatures offered by Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9% buyer’s premium) in a December 4 sale and sold at £90,000.

'Fish and Lemon', painted in 1964, is among the 65 works included in Portland Gallery’s show on Mary Fedden (1915-2012) opening this week.

'Cave Painting I' by British artist Jean Cooke (1927- 2008) is among the works on offer at Piano Nobile’s exhibition 'A Modern Venus'.

Adam Smith’s own copy bearing his simple bookplate makes £750,000 in London auction.

Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98) was the toast of London during the latest Victorian art sales held in the capital, where buyers continued to covet blue-chip Pre-Raphaelite art, market-fresh material – and invest in female names.

A trademark nocturnal scene by Victorian painter John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-93) got away on low estimate for £80,000 at John Nicholson’s (25% buyer’s premium) of Haslemere in Surrey.

New independent art fair targets younger and fresh customers with competitive prices

'A Book of Songs and Poems from the Old Testament and the Apocrypha', the Ashendene Press book of 1904 shown below, has in the past made as much as £2000 at auction.

For many years New York’s major salerooms mounted auction series of Old Master paintings, drawings and sculpture in the first months of the year immediately following their Americana series.

At the very end of the 15th century, in Venice in December 1499, there emerged from the presses of that city’s most famous printer, Aldus Manutius, what is traditionally described as the most beautiful illustrated printed book of the Italian Renaissance.