Auctions

More of a curiosity than a clock but a decorator’s dream, a life-size caricature of a smiling Chinese man clutching a willow-pattern plate with gilt dragon hands emerged in the Ayr rooms of Thomas R Callan (17.5% buyer’s premium).

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period June 6-12, 2019. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Two astronomical works dating from the 17th century were among the more successful works in a recent German auction.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Bid to a much higher than expected $23,000 (£17,970) in a Massachusetts auction was the signed photograph of Marie Curie shown here.

Early magazine runs brought some unexpectedly high prices in the latest of the regular golfing literature sales held by a Californian saleroom.

A portrait by Augustus John (1878-1961) of his daughter Gwyneth Johnstone attracted keen attention at auction in Cambridge last week.

In the dispersal by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) of the collections of Harold and Mary Wilson, the book section included copies of John Maynard Keynes’ 'General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money' of 1936 and 'A Treatise on Money' of 1933.

Edward Bawden (1903-89) produced his celebrated print, Liverpool Street Station, in 1961. He knew the station well – using it regularly when travelling between London and his home in Great Bardfield, Essex.

A set of the monumental 'Description de l’Égypte…' in its specially made case was sold last month in a US sale.

A maquette for the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in London’s Tavistock Square – valued at £20,000 on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow – was the top lot in a sale of works from the Polish-born artist Fredda Brilliant (1903-99).

Berlin auction house Grisebach posted an auction record for the Swiss artist Karl Stauffer-Bern (1857-91) on May 29 when it sold a self-portrait which had been recently restituted to the family of its original Jewish owners.