Germany

The painter Franz Roubaud (1856-1928) was born in Odessa of French parents and studied painting at the local academy and for several years in Munich. He made a name for himself with huge panoramic paintings and battle scenes.

Short message to a ‘true friend’ after opera debut appearance sells at Berlin auction house.

It is thought that the prestigious Meissen designer Johann Joachim Kaendler drew the inspiration for his teapot in the form of a reclining cockerel from a Chinese model he found in the royal collection in Dresden.

The German artist Heinrich Zille (1858-1929) was known for his caricatures and humorous and sometimes very blunt portrayals of the lower classes and demi-monde in Berlin around the beginning of the 20th century: his so-called milieu-studies.

On May 17, Cologne auction house Lempertz is selling 115 bronze mortars from the 8th-18th centuries.

Modern British ceramics are rarely offered by German auction houses. Among the notable exceptions is the Kunst & Design Auktionshaus Schops Turowski, based in Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia.

As a rule, Lempertz (24/20% buyer’s premium) in Cologne always opens its spring season with a sale of moderately priced Old Master and 19th century paintings.

This highly elaborate chest of drawers decorated in boulle marquetry technique with a variety of different figural and foliate motifs featured in the furniture session of a sale at Hampel (29.5% buyer’s premium) in Munich on March 28.

Philippe Fortuné Durand is regarded as the first professional photographer in France.

A very rare gold coin took top honours at the auction held by Künker (23% buyer’s premium) in Berlin on January 31.

Two iron padlocks caught the eye of numerous bidders at the February 28 sale at Wendl (18% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt.

Through his numerous inventions, the Parisian craftsman Julien Leroy (1686-1759) is credited with revitalising the art of clock and watch making in the French capital and throughout the country.

Contrary to popular opinion, the name of the Rock-Ola company of Chicago, which became famous for the production of distinctive jukeboxes, has no connection to rock ’n’ roll. It is in fact a fortuitous coincidence that the firm’s founder was actually called David Cullen Rockola.

Early 20th century Italian sculpture attracts six-figure result in German auction house.

Last November, Lempertz in Cologne held a successful sale of 19th century porcelain from the so-called Twinight Collection, amassed from 1994 by the New York businessman Richard Baron Cohen.

Among the many decorative works of art in Nagel’s sale in Stuttgart on February 27-28 is this 3ft 8in (1.12m) high mirror in an ornately carved gilt frame.

In the early 1980s the London-based designer Ron Arad experimented with new forms of industrial design, incorporating materials that would otherwise have been discarded.