North America

A group of letters sent from a clipper ship captain in Shanghai during the Second Opium War (1856-60) to his sons in the Charlestown area of Boston resounded with bidders at Merrill’s Auctioneers (21% buyer’s premium) in Williston, Vermont on November 3.

Scrap of paper came as result of half a manuscript book being chewed into ‘confetti’ by Steinbeck’s dog

A fine pair of 18th century English chairs sold for $120,000 (£100,000) in Asheville, North Carolina, on November 16-18.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) arrived on the Amalfi Coast in 1923 and ultimately created more than 100 works there based on the landscape.

Eminent artist stepped aside once he saw the monumental figure by younger colleague Maillol

In September 2020, Soulis Auctions knocked down record prices at a sale of the Richard and Valerie Tucker collection of carnival shooting gallery targets.

An ancient Egyptian sculptural fragment was the most eagerly contested lot in Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ (20% buyer’s premium) Autumn Majestic sale on November 10-12.

In the Mid-century market, the devil is in the detail.

The grandnephew of Parisian art and antiquities dealer Ernest Brummer (1891-1964) is parting with this second-century AD Roman marble head of a triton at Hindman in Chicago.

Dispersal of renowned collection launches with the first auctions including Aldine ‘crown jewels’

The first American Civil War playset produced by Marx came in 1958 but in 1961 a real blockbuster version appeared: the Giant Blue and Gray Battle Set.

This Roman marble bust hammered for $47,500 (£39,100) against an estimate of $2000-3000 at Wiederseim Associates (25% buyer’s premium) in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on October 20.

Catalogued simply as an ‘ornate Chinese plaque’ and estimated at $600-800, a Qing lacquer and porcelain panel hammered for a remarkable $440,000 (£359,000) at Regency Auction House in Rockaway, New Jersey.

The highly imaginative post-war toys made in Japan for the US market are sought-after lots at auction

Classical Chinese furniture deaccessioned from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts produced some sensational results at a dedicated Asian Art sale held by Brunk Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) in Asheville, North Carolina on October 19.

Created in the late 1920s by Spanish aeronautical engineer Juan de la Cierva (1895-1936), the autogiro entered service in the late 1930s.

Works by the Doulton dominate the two-day British Ceramics and Pottery Auction at Lion and Unicorn in Hollywood, Florida.

Material Culture, Philadelphia specialists in ethnographic art, is selling the Russell S Fling collection of rugs and textiles on December 4.

The first day of the Annual Thanksgiving Auction at Kaminski Auctions in Beverly, Massachusetts on November 25-26 is devoted to the collection of Robert ‘Bob’ Eigelberger.