Germany

There is absolutely no way that one can describe the decoration of a late 19th century Meissen ewer sold by Wendl (21% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt as restrained.

In his autobiography Georg Schrimpf described how he originally lacked the courage to become a painter and spent several years as a baker, a waiter and a coalman until he finally found the conviction to devote himself exclusively to art.

Two hundred eagerly awaited examples from Brockhaus collection generate suitable response.

There is a phenomenon known in Germany as Ostalgie, which is a nostalgic feeling for the now defunct East German state (GDR).

Among the most important clients of the 18th century artist Pompeo Batoni was Domenico Orsini, Duke of Gravina, who went on to become Cardinal Domenico Amedeo Orsini d’Arago.

Pictured here are five from a near-complete set of 41 polychrome terracotta figures of the Danse Macabre offered by Lempertz (25% buyer’s premium) in Cologne. They are typical of the work of Anton Sohn (1769-1841), who settled in Zizenhausen near Stockach in 1799.

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.

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.

It is thought that the German artist Adelheid Dietrich (1827-91), renowned for her incredibly detailed still-lifes of fruit and flowers, completed only 50 paintings during her career.

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.

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.

For 300 years, from the 1520s to the 1820s, the great Gothic cathedral in Cologne remained unfinished – the building overshadowed by a large crane, which for centuries dominated the panorama on the banks of the Rhine.

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

In April this year, the founder of the auction house Nusser in Munich, Ursula Nusser, died aged just 66.

Edvard Munch returned to the subject 'Woman in Moonlight – The Voice' on several occasions.

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.