North America

An auction of traditional European decorative arts at Sotheby’s New York (20/10% buyer’s premium) on April 16 included this New Zealand Arts & Crafts presentation casket.

A collection of microscopes and other antique scientific instruments from the estate of Ohio scientist John A Davidson Jr (1939-2023) came for sale at Gray’s Auctioneers (20% buyer’s premium) on April 17.

The March 14 sale at Willow Auction House (25% buyer’s premium) in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, included a New York private collection of leaded and stained-glass panels.

Warrant for Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, sells well eight years after last auction appearance

As an original Mercedes-Benz 300SL now costs something north of $1m, it is perhaps no surprise to learn that original accessories associated with the Flügeltürer are eagerly sought.

Turtle soup, which first became a delicacy on European tables with the emergence of the West Indies trade in the 18th century, was hugely popular among the elite of American society at the turn of the 20th century.

Among the starring lots at the Wright (26% buyer’s premium) Design sale on March 28 was a pair of Gio Ponti lacquered wood, upholstery and brass Triennale armchairs, dating to 1951.

The stand-out performance in the March series of Asian art sales was a Qing monochrome clair-de-lune bottle vase offered by Freeman’s Hindman (26% buyer’s premium) in Chicago on March 24.

Abell’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Los Angeles on April 17 included a spectacular Art Nouveau vase from the workshop of French ceramicist Clement Massier.

A Copeland vase produced to mark 100 years of American Independence was among the highlights of the second tranche of the Flower collection of majolica.

Relics from the dawn of the electro-magnetic telephone created a sensation when they appeared for sale in Massachusetts.

Horace Pippin (1888-1946), a self-taught black US artist known for images of the First World War, biblical scenes and images of racial segregation, features at 'The Philadelphia Show' this year where his 1944 still-life 'The Love Note' is offered by M Hanks Gallery for $250,000.

The invention of the megalethoscope by the Swiss-Italian optician and photographer Carlo Ponti greatly enhanced the experience of viewing photographs.

Priced 10 cents when it appeared in 1938, a copy of Action Comics No 1 which introduced Superman has become the world’s most valuable comic book.