Auctions

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.

Among the most desirable of all ‘Prattware’ transfer printed wares are the series of very rare and highly decorative advertising plaques produced for firms such as Crosse & Blackwell and Huntley & Palmers.

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

Naive artworks that can also suit modern decorating taste are rising in popularity and price.

Bid to £3400, a 1703 first edition of Martin Martin’s Description of the Western Islands of Scotland in a later full calf binding proved the most expensive item in the 250-lot book and ephemera section that opened an October 5-7 auction at Stride & Son (18% buyer’s premium).

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

Glasgow School designer’s embroidered silk design instantly stood out in a box of fabric.

Often from poor communities and mostly illiterate, men were limited in the ways in which they could plight their troth in 18th and 19th century Wales.

Coin dealer Patrick Deane first became interested in 17th and 18th century trade tokens in 1970 when working at Spink and Son. He sold his first collection of around 1250 pieces in 1984.

The Danish artist Hugo Vilfred Pedersen (1870-1959) studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen but afterwards spent 12 years travelling around Asia.

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.

Nineteenth-century Grand Tourists and souvenirs from the Orient made for a highly successful outing near Bristol where micro-mosaic panels, intaglios and Chinese vessels led the way at Clevedon Saleooms (22% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms.

An edition of Queen Victoria’s Leaves from the Journal of our Life on the Highlands… took £550 at a Mallams (25% buyer’s premium) sale of September 23.

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.