London

Simplicity and geometry are key to the works of Eugène Printz, one of the Parisian practitioners of Art Deco design.

A selection of fine or unusual bindings seen at auction during the summer months will feature more prominently in a future issue, but shown here is a 1751 first of Thomas Gray’s An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard in a striking later binding that was among lots offered at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) on July 12.

The Winter Art & Antiques Fair Olympia has been saved and will return this year in a new format thanks to commitment from more than 50 dealers.

Eye-catching, head-turning and mouth-watering: it was the human form, from ancient statuettes to modern portraits, that caught buyers’ attention at the most recent edition of London Art Week.

It has not been a vintage season for armour in the saleroom, but some of the recent highlights from London and Munich are shown here.

This early Meissen teapot and cover was among the stand-out sales at the joint selling exhibition 'A Collectors’ Paradise' held at Brian Haughton Gallery in St James’s.

The classic English sporting gun is a sidelock, but for many the ‘round-action’ shotguns perfected by John Dickson of Edinburgh in the 1870s are the most elegant of all.

Edged weapons from the East dominated the summer sale at Thomas Del Mar (24% buyer’s premium) in London on June 27 and it was an old collection of Indian dress daggers that produced the highest prices.

Ivory frames to this 18th century wooden box, below, with tortoiseshell panels, did nothing to hold back bidding on currently hugely popular Indo-Portuguese material.

Two albums of 19th century watercolours and drawings produced unexpected results in summer sales.

A rare and early combination of a war hammer and pistol was a highlight of the Bonhams (25/12.5% buyer’s premium) sale in Knightsbridge on May 23, selling for £24,000.

The top lot at Bonhams (25/12.5% buyer’s premium) in San Francisco on June 19 was an exceptional cased example of a specially engraved Colt 1851 percussion revolver with shoulder stock.

One of the earlier big attractions of the new season will be the September 18-19 auction at Sotheby’s of the Erwin Tomash library on the history of computing.