Europe

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from July 7-23, 2020.

Among the sales series held by Koller (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) in Zurich in June that had been postponed from March was the single-owner auction of works from the Müller-Frei collection.

A selection of early Continental silver from the 16th and 17th centuries was a notable feature of the Lempertz (25% buyer’s premium) decorative arts auction in Cologne.

At the 19th century international exhibitions, the Viennese silversmith Hermann Ratzendorfer (1845-94) gained a reputation for his mixed-media works in the neo-Renaissance taste.

This pastel by the Barbizon school artist Jean-François Millet (1814-75) is one of the highlights in the Esprit du XIXème Siècle auction at Osenat in Fontainebleau on July 19.

In Koller’s mixed-owner auction of furniture and decorative arts, it was a rare example of 18th century Italian silver that took centre stage.

Catalogued as French and late 19th century, this 5in (12cm) drinking vessel offered by Lisbon saleroom Renascimento appears to be an electrotype of the famous Warren Cup.

Without the signature and dedication, this crayon and pencil drawing of 'Dorfhaus mit Baum und Randsteinen' (Village House with Tree and Rocks), coming up for sale at Neumeister in Munich on July 16, would be virtually impossible to attribute to its creator.

The easing of lockdown rules across the UK and Ireland will help the art and antiques sector return to some normality during the summer months.

The medium of jewellery provided perhaps the greatest canvas for the new international style that flowed through the decorative arts around the turn of the 20th century.

Christie’s claimed a new record for Vietnamese ceramics when a large 15th century blue and white storage jar sold for a surprise €380,000 (£339,300) as part of the Art d'Asie sale in Paris.

Jewellery provided one of the great expressions of the Art Nouveau style. Here ATG reports on four exceptional items made in four different countries in the early years of the 20th century

Our regular listing of British and Irish book sales.

The sale of Selected Works at Grisebach in Berlin includes this early photographic view of Paris, taken in the 1850s by Gustave Le Gray.

It was a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art sometime in the 1880s that inspired Louis Comfort Tiffany to produce his so-called Cypriote range of art glass.

Not only does this Dutch 18ct gold and white carnelian demi-parure c.1820 include a period case but the original handwritten invoice from 1824 survives.

The sky was (almost) the limit at the recent sale at Bassenge (28% buyer’s premium) in Berlin when an Islamic celestial globe came up for sale.

The Paris auction centre Drouot opened its doors again last month in France following the lockdown.

A memento of the last great age of transatlantic ocean travel can be found at the sale of Peter Karbstein in Düsseldorf on July 11.