International

Relics from the dawn of the electro-magnetic telephone created a sensation when they appeared for sale in Massachusetts.

An old label on the back of a Medway view that emerged in Germany gave a tantalising suggestion that the British artist John Constable was involved.

One of the lesser-known episodes in the long and eventful life of Francis Bacon lasted little more than five years and was later dismissed by the artist as unimportant.

British artist Albert Joseph Moore (1841-93) was predestined to become a painter, following in the footsteps of his father and four of his 13 siblings.

Toy specialist Lankes (25% buyer’s premium) in Döhlau, Germany auctioned the extensive inventory of the private museum in Prague belonging to Ivan Steiger, who is equally well-known as a caricaturist and a collector of toys.

European dealers and collectors competed for pieces of 18th century Transylvanian silver which were on sale at the 300th auction of Dr Fischer (30% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn, Germany.

Bob Aibel is founder of Moderne, one of the exhibitors at the Philadelphia Show

Though the performer is largely forgotten today, two Bénévol-related items appeared at Bernaerts (25% buyer’s premium) in Antwerp as part of a Circus & Magic sale.

'Moulin Rouge, La Goulue' was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s first commissioned poster and it launched his poster-making career overnight.

Knowledgeable bidders generated high prices for early typewriters at German technology specialist’s latest sale

Almost 3ft (90cm) wide and weighing a massive 710oz, this Edwardian wine cistern is marked for Garrard & Co, London, 1903.

This aristocratic survivor from the ‘brass and glass’ era of microscope making, a version of Powell & Lealand’s famous ‘No 1’ compound monocular and binocular microscope, is dated 1898.