US

The large collection of predominantly English ceramics offered by Stair Galleries from a New York collector included examples of 18th century porcelain from many of the major English factories.

A selection of maps of US cities from recent auctions stateside.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Sporting a distinctive hairstyle and beard that the cataloguer suggested “…would never again be replicated until early 21st-century Brooklyn”, the photograph below was part of a slavery and abolition-themed lot sold for $80,000 (£64,725) in an Americana sale held in New York by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on September 25.

New Orleans dealership MS Rau has opened an expanded retail space after three years of renovation.

Musket that fired the first shot in 1775 American revolution battle appears in US saleroom.

The November 18 sale titled California Jewelry held by Doyle New York on the West Coast includes a group of French Art Nouveau pieces described as ‘Property from an Important Jewel Collector’. Several display the plique-à-jour (‘letting in daylight’) enamelling technique revived in the late 19th century.

This small-scale wall mirror by Line Vautrin from c.1950 measures approximately 15in (38cm) in diameter.

Sold for a record $2750 (£2220) at PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) in California on October 10 was an inscribed copy of The World Set Free, a prophetic novel by HG Wells.

Going to the Fields by the Cezch artist Joža Uprka (1861-1940) is one of the potential best-sellers of Bonhams’ sale of 19th century European paintings in New York on November 20.

A number of Russian icons are included in Crescent City Auction Gallery’s sale on November 16-17 in New Orleans, among them this 19th century Virgin of Kazan.

Christie’s latest ‘Classic week’ in New York raised a premium-inclusive $59.9m (£46.8m) from nine separate sales.

A sale at Rago Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in its New Jersey rooms offered potential buyers the Andrew Furer and Elle Douglas collection: 27 lots of Martinware (mostly composed of the potters’ iconic Wally Bird creations).

Golf books do not bring as many really high prices as was once the case, but the most recent of the regular sales in this category held by a Californian saleroom did contain a couple of surprises.

Two books from Herman Melville’s library, both volumes of classical poetry that were annotated throughout and in one instance signed, topped a recent New York sale.