International (print edition)

When the Romanian-born French designer Maria Pergay (1930-2023) was asked why she chose to make furniture out of steel, she responded that it was because she had a score to settle with Stalin. “You know his name means steel? So the more I hit it, the happier I am.”

Five works by one of the greatest exponents of the intricate art of cloisonné enamel were included in Alderfer Auction’s (23% buyer’s premium) Collectors sale staged on July 24-25.

Revere Auctions’ (25% buyer’s premium) sale in St Paul, Minnesota, titled Eternal Beauty: Splendors in Asian Art was dominated by a group of Chinese jades that came by descent from the family of Jerry O’Brien (1902-51).

Painted wood panels from a partial Louis XVI boiserie-panelled bedroom were among the 250 lots at the Design for the Home and Garden auction at Andrew Jones (25/18/12% buyer’s premium) in Los Angeles on July 17.

An author printed and signed copy of Walt Whitman’s 'Leaves of Grass' sold for $37,500 (£29,400) with buyer’s premium at University Archives.

The children’s author Richard Scarry (1919-94) was at the peak of popularity when he published 'Nicky Goes to the Doctor' in 1972.

The 504-lot book sale at Potter & Potter (20% buyer’s premium) in Chicago on July 25 was topped by a four-volume set of one of the great records of the Gilded Age.

The top lot in the American Historical Ephemera and Photography Online sale at Freeman’s Hindman (27/21/15% buyer’s premium) in Chicago was an album published in 1886 to mark the death of President Ulysses S Grant.

Library items shelved away in now closed college include some of the first North American histories

Themed exhibitions at this year’s Parcours des Mondes link ethnographic art with Surrealist movement

This year, Munich auction house Ketterer (32/27/22% buyer’s premium) is marking its 70th anniversary and the evening sale provided plenty of opportunities for celebration.

Viennese auction house Tiberius (27% buyer’s premium) recently sold the inventory of Laudon Castle, a privately owned, moated baroque residence on the outskirts of the Austrian capital.

Recent sales show the appetite for Chinese art from bidders with deep pockets is not at all diminished

Nagel’s (29.5% buyer’s premium) first sale dedicated to Fine Arts and Luxury in Stuttgart obviously caught the mood of the bidders.

Instantly recognisable and with a perfect provenance, a painting by Salvador Dalí (1904-89) more than lived up to its expectations at a sale held by Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer (22% buyer’s premium).

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in interest for works by Adolph Menzel (see also ATG No 2649), whose works often go way above the guides and achieve unexpected six-figure prices.

Sometime c.1900, a craftsman or accomplished amateur spent a lot of time building or converting a 6ft 7in (2m) cupboard into a fully fitted dolls’ house.

Swiss collectors were in a generous mood at Koller’s (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) recent Zurich auction.

Examples of products by Viennese factory founded 10 years after Meissen prove popular purchases

Works on paper by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) are regularly strong sellers at Austrian auctions, but even so, the result for one of his coloured pencil drawings at a Dorotheum (30/25% buyer’s premium) sale in Vienna was quite a surprise.