International (print edition)

Chinese bidders were the driving force at this autumn’s German and Austrian auctions of Asian art.

Selection of contents from landmark French inter-war modernist building resurface after 1985 dispersal.

The second stock sale from the French ceramics specialist Christophe Perlès was held at Drouot by Pescheteau-Badin (26% buyer’s premium inc VAT) on November 26.

Star turn in a sale held in the French city of Angers on December 5 was this small painting by the 17th century French artist Jacques Stella (1596-1657), below.

When this Monet maritime sunset below was hammered down for €860,000 (£767,860) – or €1.18m/£1.05m including premium – in Millon’s (25% buyer’s premium) sale of Modern Art on November 26 it not only overturned its €80,000-100,000 estimate but also achieved the second highest result at auction for a pastel by the famous French Impressionist.

This Omega ‘Weems’ Royal Air Force pilot’s wristwatch below was one of the sought-after entries in a 311-lot auction of watches and jewellery at Miller & Miller (18/15% buyer’s premium) in New Hamburg, Ontario, on November 24.

The highlight of the specialist sale of firearms and militaria held by Pook & Pook (22% buyer’s premium) in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, on November 17 was this matched pair of 18th century flintlock pistols.

A selection of potential highlights coming up in December and January sales taking place in Detroit, Chicago, New York, California, Boston and Connecticut.

December is one of two key periods in the French calendar when the auction houses concentrate their sales of Asian art. Pictured here is a selection of highlights and unusual pieces coming up for sale this month in the Paris rooms.

The London watchmaker John Ilbery, active from 1780-1839, is credited with the invention of the ‘montre chinoise’, highly ornate goldenamel watches made for the Chinese market.

The sales of Asian art at Lempertz in Cologne traditionally devote a large selection to Japanese works of art and the auction on December 7-8 is no exception.

In 1921, the opening of the spring trade fair in Leipzig was accompanied by inauguration of the socalled Porzellan Palais.

Among the lots in the sale of porcelain and works of art at Metz in Heidelberg on December 15 about 80 Asian pieces come from an old German collection that was on loan to the state museums in Berlin for many decades from 1963 onwards.

The year 1907 was a decisive one in the artistic development of Lyonel Feininger (1871- 1956). In the previous year he had left his wife and family and moved with his new partner Julia Berg to Paris, where their son Andreas was born.

A number of works designed by some of the biggest names in the Wiener Werkstatte association are to be offered in the Jugendstil auction at Dorotheum on December 12. Among them are two brooches designed by Josef Hoffmann.

Dogny Auction in Switzerland will be offering around 75 lots of ceramics and other Asian works art from the collection of Rolf Heiniger in its winter sale on December 4-5 in Lausanne.

Take nine five-clawed dragons, add 19 bats and place them among swirling clouds and breaking waves and you have the décor of a very rare 18th century iron-red and underglaze blue moon flask that is one of the star lots at Nagel in the sale in Salzburg on December 6-7.

This diamond and sapphire tiara, which is to be offered for sale by Bruun Rasmussen on November 30 in Copenhagen, has a long and distinguished Danish royal provenance.

The Scottish gun-making workshop of Doune in Perthshire produced pistols that were a firearm of choice for highland clansmen but were also favoured by wealthy socialites.

Artcurial has made something of a habit of offering parts of the Eiffel Tower, pieces that were removed as part of periodic restorations of the famous landmark on the Paris skyline.