International

A single-owner collection of watches assembled over many decades and spanning 500 years of horology was offered by Aguttes (25/23% buyer’s premium) in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris.

Much, much earlier than most other entries in a comics and comic art sale that ran at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) from September 30 to October 2 were examples of the work of Winsor McCay (c.1866-67-1934), who was well known as an accomplished editorial and political cartoonist and for his work in the world of animation and cartoon strips.

A couple of weeks after the Aguttes watches auction another collection in the same category went under the hammer in Paris.

A George III mahogany china cabinet became one of the most expensive pieces of English furniture ever sold when it took $2.2m (£2m) during the opening salvos of Christie’s New York sale of the Ann and Gordon Getty collection.

A vast collection of Royal Worcester porcelain put together by an Australian couple during frequent trips to UK dealers and auction houses is up for sale next month.

The creative roots of this 22in (56cm) bronze figure, which was one of the highlights at Nusser (22.69% buyer’s premium), date back to the pre-war years.

The growing interest in inter- and post-war works by Vietnamese artists - particularly those alumni of the Ecole des Beaux Arts d’Indo-Chine - means that France, as a former colonial power in the region, is well supplied with examples.

Auction firm Art Research Paris will be offering two paintings by the Paris school Chinese-French artist Sanyu (1895-1966).

An Abelam hornbill sculpture from Papua New Guinea is among the highlights at the Tribal Art Fair in Amsterdam.

Since 1969, when it was sold at a gallery exhibition in Munich, one of Niki de Saint Phalle’s (1930-2002) well-known Nanas had belonged to a south German collector.

The complex and sometimes bizarre machines that the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925-91) constructed during his long career belong to the most distinctive examples of kinetic art.

Among the potential highlights in Aguttes’ Contemporary Art auction in Neuilly on November 2 will be this work by Pierre Soulages (b.1919), 30 mai 1981.

The central motif of Antoni Tàpies’ (1923- 2012) Personnage assis (Variation XI) has been the subject of many discussions among art historians.

Watercolour given as thanks to his Heinz family host in 2003 now sells to a US collector.

The Austrian artist and composer Hermann Nitsch, who died earlier this year at the age of 84, had as many detractors as followers.

A third sale featuring ceramics by Jean Cocteau took place in Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr’s (27.5%/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) Paris saleroom.

According to Munich saleroom Ketterer, the 3ft 4in (1.02m) square painting N. O. 9th . Ward, which is part of the sale on December 9, is the first work by the American artist Stanley Whitney (b.1946) ever to be offered at a German auction.

One boasted an illustrious ‘Fonthill heirloom’ provenance, the other a Hotung collection background