Auctions

An oil on canvas of a German scene was probably on display at Louis Comfort Tiffany's Long Island home, sold in the 1940s.

A classic of the large blue and white forms of Yuan dynasty porcelain comes to auction in Spain

Current collecting taste means that Old Master paintings exploring the darker side of the human character can often find more admirers than more typical subject matter of Georgian gentleman or European landscapes. Works of the grotesque are particularly popular.

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online.

A collection of Nelson commemoratives amassed over 30 years includes pieces once owned by the man himself

A highlight of Apollo Art Auctions’ (20% buyer’s premium) April 27-28 sale was a trio of Egyptian sandstone reliefs from the Amarna period, the 17-year reign of the radical pharaoh Amenhotep IV known as Akhenaten.

Letters and postcard written by Antarctic expedition members were sent to New Zealand host family

Like all artists born in the 19th century, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) underwent a traditional academic training, studying at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule (now the University of Applied Arts, Vienna) from 1876-83.

The sale at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) on April 18 included an outstanding Russian icon and oklad by Orest Kurlyukov.

The first ‘Thumb Bibles’, paraphrased or abridged versions of the good book, were published in the early 17th century – the London printer John Weever offering his 128- page An Agnus Dei, measuring just over 1in, in 1601.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Georgian period carried not only prayer books and bibles, but also books of poems and the annual miniature almanacs containing practical information on everything from the phases of the moon to the currency exchange rates of Europe.

When James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) arrived in Paris in 1855 determined to pursue a career as an artist, printmaking was experiencing a revival.

Our selection of lots from nine upcoming auctions

A picture by the artist dubbed ‘the Irish Alfred Wallis’ soared above estimate to bring a record at Dublin saleroom Adam’s (25% buyer’s premium).

For over a century, the whereabouts of the painting Tanz im Varieté (Steptanz) (Vaudeville Dance/Tap Dance) by the Expressionist Ernst Ludig Kirchner were unknown.