International

The New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC) has taken the decision to drop antiquities from its offering amid concerns over looted art.

When Bill Kime, senior decorative arts specialist at the Waddington’s (20% buyer’s premium) saleroom, was contacted early last year by a couple from British Columbia about selling their collection of Martinware, he jumped at the chance.

First-edition sets with well-preserved jackets and perhaps a signature or an inscription usually make the really big money where Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is concerned, but a recent Dublin sale produced something rather unusual.

Published jointly by Kellogg & Comstock of New York and D Needham of Buffalo, c.1849-50, the rare and amusing hand coloured lithograph shown below is titled The Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California: I Neither Borrow nor Lend.

Growth “across all value levels of the market” helped global sales at Christie’s increase by 26% to £5.1bn in 2017, says Orlando Rock, chairman of Christie’s UK.

Heritage Auctions says more than half of its sales are now made through the internet.

The most eye-catching price at the latest series of Old Master and 19th century art sales in New York came at Sotheby’s separately staged auction of drawings from the collection of the late Howard and Saretta Barnet.

Texas-based fine art and collectables specialist Heritage Auctions announced a number of new developments to its mobile app last month. Advances included one-touch mobile bidding and an extension to the barcode scanning facility for coins.

Two exceptionally rare celestial globes or spheres have made their mark in Geneva and London salerooms in recent times – and on the same day.