Europe

Sometime c.1900, a craftsman or accomplished amateur spent a lot of time building or converting a 6ft 7in (2m) cupboard into a fully fitted dolls’ house.

Swiss collectors were in a generous mood at Koller’s (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) recent Zurich auction.

Examples of products by Viennese factory founded 10 years after Meissen prove popular purchases

Works on paper by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) are regularly strong sellers at Austrian auctions, but even so, the result for one of his coloured pencil drawings at a Dorotheum (30/25% buyer’s premium) sale in Vienna was quite a surprise.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) epitomised the power of words and, on June 25, that is what bidders had the chance to own in the form of those penned by the political and spiritual leader himself in a letter to his friend, South African architect Hermann Kallenbach (1871-1945).

A pair of pistols Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly intended to use on himself after defeat sold for €1.69m (£1.4m) including buyer’s premium at auction house Osenat in Fontainebleau, France.

On July 2, Vienna auction house Tiberius (27% buyer’s premium) sold the inventory of Laudon Castle, a privately owned, moated baroque residence on the outskirts of the Austrian capital.

Himalayan gilt metal statuettes featured prominently among the best-sellers in several Drouot sales including a number of modestly estimated examples that were pursued to way past their guides.

A lot that made far more than expected at Drouot’s latest Asian art sales was this large circular blue and white dish which came up at Theirry de Maigret (30% buyer’s premium inc tax).

These two very different screens were among the notable results recorded in the Asian sales at Drouot.

Over the course of six days from June 7-14, a dozen sales devoted to the arts of Asia were staged by 11 firms at the Drouot auction centre as part of Printemps Asiatique.

A group of Chinese objects in a June 14 sale of furniture and works of art held by Coutau Begarie (30% buyer’s premium inc tax) included this carved celadon jade group dated to the 18th century.

Dealer Speelman’s own figures and vessels shine among Asian art sales held in Paris

A long bidding battle took this Qianlong mark and period covered vase to a triple-estimate €230,000 (£194,915) to top Peschetau-Badin’s (30% buyer’s premium inc tax) Asian arts sale on June 13.

The Fonsie Mealy Chatsworth Summer Rare Books & Collectables Sale on July 30-31 includes a private collection of works by Jack B Yeats, The Cuala Press and modern Irish and English literature.