Europe

Malagan figures played an integral and complex role in the rituals of the tribes of New Ireland, the north-eastern province of Papua New Guinea.

Only a few months after several ornamental pieces of silver by the Viennese designer Dagobert Peche, one of the leading lights of the Wiener Werkstätte, caused a sensation in Düsseldorf (ATG No 2613, the auction house Kinsky (28% buyer’s premium) achieved an impressive result for a work by him.

The decision by Cologne auction house Lempertz (26% buyer’s premium) to postpone the sale of Max Pechstein’s 1909 Expressionist work Selbstbildnis, liegend (Self Portrait, lying down) from June to December 1 proved to be a wise one.

A German collector consigned 28 carpets for the November 25 sale at Rippon Boswell (25% buyer’s premium) in Wiesbaden.

While auction prices for works of art from Japan can scarcely compete with those achieved for pieces from China, the sale at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) in Düsseldorf on November 30 showed that there is still a healthy market for netsuke.

Among the star attractions at the 60-lot evening sale of works from the collection of Hubert Guerrand-Hermès (1940-2016) at Sotheby’s Paris was a carved and regilded Louis XVI chair.

The market for Lucie Rie ceramics continues to reach new heights.

The combination of a pre-eminent maker and a perfect provenance made a late 18th century pocket chronometer one of the most sought-after pieces at Dr Crott (25% buyer’s premium) in Mannheim on November 18.

By all accounts, the Bulgarian prince and later Tsar Ferdinand I was a passionate railway enthusiast.

A private collector in London had his work cut out to secure a painting on offer for €2000-3000 at Nagel (29.5% buyer’s premium) in Stuttgart.

When it was last on public view, at a Berlin exhibition in 1981, the Portrait of a Black Courtier was attributed to the early 18th century Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne.

Plenty of potential takers emerged for an early copy of Leonardo’s 'Madonna of the Rocks' at the Dorotheum (25/20.84% buyer’s premium) sale of Old Masters.

Once believed to be by Rubens, work hidden away during the war is now thought to be a copy by a pupil

The biggest surprise of Wendl’s (21% buyer’s premium) extensive general sale in Rudolstadt on October 25-28 was the seemingly never-ending exchange of bids for an early 18th century Old Master which had a starting price of €900.

Without doubt, the sensation of the German auction season was the emergence of a sketchbook belonging to the German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich at Grisebach (32/27% buyer’s premium) in Berlin.

Louis de Bayser of the Paris drawings dealership Galerie de Bayser is the president of FAB Paris, the fair organised by Agence d’Événements Culturels (AEC), which also runs the Salon du Dessin.

Second edition of the event involving two combined fairs benefits from extra space at new venue

Pictured here are two paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) appearing on the French auction scene this season within the space of a month - one sold, the other upcoming.

On December 12 in Paris the auction firm Pescheteau-Badin will be offering this writing table that belonged to Louis XV.