North America

The Edison Class M cylinder phonograph was initially intended for business dictation but in time entertainment became its main role.

Potter & Potter’s Fine Literature & Modern Firsts Sale on April 26 in Chicago includes a copy of Oscar Wilde’s (1854-1900) The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

California dealership Denenberg Fine Arts has sold a full set of 80 prints from the Jugendstil magazine PAN to Chicago’s Driehaus Museum.

Running to 63 photographs, a virtually complete set of those produced for Carleton Watkins’ 1863 publication '…Photographic Views of the Falls and Valley of Yosemite' in Mariposa County, California featured in a January 27 sale at Nate D Sanders (25% buyer’s premium) of Los Angeles.

The best-seller at $400,003 (£296,300)* in a recent sale at RR Auction was a doubly signed receipt in which Johann Sebastian Bach acknowledges payment of the sum of five guilders under the terms of Sabina Nathan’s legacy.

The ivory regulations of New York State will be reviewed by New York court judges following an appeal brought by two US antique dealer associations.

This Regina disc and double comb-operated upright musical box is expected to be one of the highlights when Woody Auction in Kansas offers the collection of David and Marlene Howard from Ohio on March 19.

Hindman will cover four centuries of American artists and craftsmen in its March 10-11 American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts auction in Cincinatti.

One of the stand-out lots at Sotheby’s New York (26/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) was a 1949 first printing of The Intelligent Investor.

Italian liqueur tempts buyer to pay highest price at dedicated sale

The highlight of the sale held by Clarke (25% buyer’s premium) on February 6 proved, as expected, to be Fernand Leger’s (1881-1955) gouache Les Loisirs.

This splendid example of the illustrative work of Edmund Dulac, a watercolour, gouache and ink drawing on paper, is his original artwork for one of the 28 plates he produced for a 1911, Hodder & Stoughton edition of Stories from Hans Andersen.

Another 425 lots of rare and vintage posters will also be up for sale in New York this month at Poster Auction International on March 20.

Skinner is holding two sales of Asian works of art in Marlborough, Massachusetts, this month: online from March 14-24 and live on March 23.

Christie’s Jewels has appointed Eleanor Walper as associate vice president and specialist at Christie’s in Los Angeles.