Features

Spotlight on a selection of auction lots made using unusual or exotic materials

Rather than the rich and famous it was this photograph of three haggard workers that caught the eye in a Cincinnati saleroom.

Anyone sitting through a slideshow of images from an extraordinary photograph collection of Indian, south-east Asian, and Middle Eastern subjects sold in a US auction could be there for a long time.

Leica cameras of rather different dimensions to normal clicked into action at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

An early version of virtual reality, the Victorian craze of stereoscopes is firmly in focus this summer

Denis Pellerin, co-curator of the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy (BMAS) and co-curator of the upcoming Watts Gallery exhibition, tells ATG about the collection

Looking more like a sale brochure when unopened, the embossed front cover shown below in fact conceals a rare 1906 stereoscopic viewer.

Just as stereoscope images became a Victorian collecting craze, another notable photographic fad of the era was the carte de visite

Partying through Prohibition, cocktail shakers sum up the spirit of Art Deco

It is 20 years ago that the auction record for Clarice Cliff was sent tumbling when an 18in (46cm) May Avenue charger sold for £34,000 at Christie’s South Kensington on May 14, 2003. Those were heady days indeed.

Among the most popular lots in the Guinevere: 60 Years on the King’s Road sale was this rare Italian marquetery, vellum and bronze sideboard.

It’s no surprise that prices of Art Deco bronze and ivory figures have fallen sharply since US and UK laws on the sale of elephant ivory were tightened.

The SS Normandie was both the apogee and the nadir of the Art Deco movement.

London-based French antiques dealer Dorian Caffot de Fawes offers furniture, pictures and other objects from 1920-70.

Janice Kehoe of Solo Antiques specialises in Art Nouveau and Art Deco sculpture and glass as well as Arts & Crafts pieces.

Femme à la Palme, c.1925, by Demetre Chiparus (1886-1947), the Romanian Art Deco sculptor, is an imposing example of his distinct style.

Jeroen Markies is a specialist in all things Art Deco, offering a range of furniture, sculpture, glass and lighting.

The Epstein family produced some of Britain’s leading examples of Art Deco furniture.

Art Deco had a profound influence on all categories – not just art, sculpture or luxury furnishings but also on the design of more utilitarian items.

This is one of the very first batch of standard barographs produced by Richard Frères of Paris.