Switzerland

This 1966 work by the Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro (b.1926) will feature in Koller’s Post War and Contemporary sale on December 1 in Zurich.

A three-day auction held by Schuler (23/20/16% buyer’s premium) in Zurich achieved numerous notable results.

The private collector who consigned a painting he had bought at Sotheby’s in London in 2013 to Koller (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) in Zurich for the auction on September 23 will have been most agreeably surprised by the result.

The Books & Autographs auction at Koller in Zurich on September 21 features the greatest work by artist and naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian on the insects and fauna of Surinam, estimated at SwFr120,000-160,000.

Though it is the pineapple that is most prominent, it is the assortment of creatures that flutter around, climb or emerge from its leaves that are the principal attraction of this coloured plate, below.

During the late summer of 1907, the Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler visited the Engadin region and painted six landscapes of nearby mountains.

The last time this painting by David Teniers the younger (before 1610-90), depicting an alchemist in his workshop, was mentioned in a publication was back in 1877 and it comes to the market after having been in a Swiss family collection for over 200 years.

Works by Alfred Kubin will be offered at a Swiss auction this month.

Among the contemporaries of André Charles Boulle, who perfected the complex form of marquetry that bears his name, was the Parisian ebeniste Nicolas Sageot.

ATG picks out 16 recent stand-out items making waves in German, Austrian and Swiss salerooms

New faces at Hindman, Sotheby's, Bonhams and Phillips.

The Rolex Deep Sea Special, with its remarkable bubble case capable of withstanding huge pressure, was created in the early 1950s to test just how deep a diving watch could go.

If ever there were a price to demonstrate just how important condition has become in the top end of the collecting market then it is the record-breaking SFr2.55m (£2.065m) for a reference CK2915 Speedmaster at Phillips (26/21% buyer's premium) in Geneva on November 5.

Dessert plate taken to St Helena exile by Napoleon demonstrates provenance value

This 1930 view of Boulogne on a misty day was painted by Albert Marquet (1875-1947).

Regulators hold their own distinct appeal for collectors who like their aesthetic and are interested in their historic horological function as precision timepieces.

Over many years, Helga and Walther Lauffs collected American and European art from the 1960s-70s.

Li Keran, who died in 1989, is considered to be one of the most influential Chinese Contemporary painters. He not only taught a generation of young artists; he is credited with the revival of Chinese landscape painting.

The sale in 1872 of a silver pocket watch manufactured by Patek Philippe in Geneva to the jeweller and retailer Gondolo & Labouriau in Rio de Janeiro marked the beginning of a highly successful and mutually profitable business partnership that lasted until 1927.