Germany

A fine example of Thai silversmithing sold well above its estimate for €17,000 (£14,400) at Historia Auctionata (27% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Berlin on June 19. The 9in (23cm) parcel gilt and niello pumpkin-form tea kettle probably dated from the 1870s.

Selection of items by the Hungarian family firm date from most in-demand era of production

The Rare Books sale at Ketterer Kunst (25/20/19% buyer’s premium) in Hamburg on May 27 included this first edition dedication copy of Das Kapital (1867).

It is safe to say that nowadays the image of a smoking dog would find little favour with animal rights activists or for that matter with the current (for now) UK Prime Minister.

On May 8, Neumeister (30% buyer’s premium) in Munich sold the collection of Hans Constantin Faussner, a Bavarian lawyer and art collector.

A monumental painting of a fish market soared to unexpected heights at the May 16 auction at Lempertz (26% buyer’s premium) in Cologne.

June 2, 1878, began as a normal day in the varied life of the German artist Adolph von Menzel.

This recently discovered example of the iconic Bauhaus tea-infuser, designed by Marianne Brandt in 1924, on offer at Lempertz on May 15 for €200,000, was knocked down to the Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum for Art and Industry) for €260,000 (£222,220).

Art in Germany might be about to get a bit cheaper with the German government confirming it will cut the VAT on art sales from 19% to 7% in line with its import VAT.

If proof were needed that regional British clockmakers were as capable of making impressive works as those of London colleagues, then an 18th century longcase clock being sold by Metz on July 19-20 in Heidelberg without reserve, provides it.

Moses automaton watch is one of the stand-out hammer highlights in recent sales

Published between 1750-73, Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortis curiosorum (‘A selection of plants from natural specimens nurtured in London’s curious gardens’) is considered the most important botanical work ever printed in Germany.

Remarkably, although a very successful and popular artist, no accounts of the work of the Georgian caricaturist James Gillray (1756-1815) were published in England during his lifetime.

The sale at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) on April 18 included an outstanding Russian icon and oklad by Orest Kurlyukov.

For over a century, the whereabouts of the painting Tanz im Varieté (Steptanz) (Vaudeville Dance/Tap Dance) by the Expressionist Ernst Ludig Kirchner were unknown.

Over the years, Cologne auction house Van Ham has achieved high prices for works by Raden Saleh Ben Jaggia.

One of the highlights on the first day of the May 30-31 auction at Grisebach in Berlin is a collection of 33 works on paper from the collection of the one-time Cologne gallery owner Rudolf Zwirner.

The German artist Gabriel von Max (1840-1915) was not only an accomplished painter but also a passionate follower of Darwinism.

It has often been said that no other work of art encompasses the spirit of the Bauhaus more perfectly than Marianne Brandt’s tea-infuser or Teeextraktkännchen MT49, as it was officially called.

With very few exceptions, the French artist Victor Philippe Lemoine-Benoit devoted almost all of his painting career to one subject: hot-air balloons of the Montgolfière type.