Antiques

The world records for inro (traditional Japanese case consisting of nested boxes) and netsuke (miniature carving) sold at auction have both been broken during the sale of the Harriet Szechenyi Collection of Japanese Art that took place at Bonhams, New Bond Street on November 8th. The sale realised £4.6 million with 87% [Read More]

Sotheby’s London, announces the sale of an unpublished manuscript by Charlotte Brontë as part of its sale of English Literature, History, Children’s Books & Illustrations on Thursday, 15th December 2011, estimated at £200,000-300,000*. Never before seen by scholars, it is the most important Brontë manuscript to have appeared at auction in more [Read More]

Sotheby’s Paris is to auction an Important Collection of Furniture & Works of Art owned by antiques dealer Adriano Ribolzi, on 30 November 2011. This refined and homogenous ensemble consists of a hundred works presenting a rich overview of late 17th and 18th century French creativity: cabinet-making, furniture, bronzes, carpets and precious [Read More]

A beautiful blue and white jar decorated with boys at play that tells a very human story with links to royalty, is estimated to sell for £300,000 to £500,000 at Bonhams sale of fine Chinese Art on November 10th in New Bond Street, London. The sale with 700 pieces is the largest [Read More]

Some of this auction’s highlights include lot 200, a baseball autographed by baseball legends “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948) and Lou Gehrig (1903-1941). This item was a local consignment purchased from the previous owners whose husband used to play catch with the ball until his father recognized its value. It remained inside a desk [Read More]

The only two surviving sketch-leaves in private hands for Edward Elgar’s unfinished Third Symphony are to be sold at Bonhams Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs Sale in London on 22 November. They are part of a rich collection of material that belonged to Vera Hockman, the woman with whom Elgar fell [Read More]

A unique set of twelve original Japanese Namiki pens from the Alfred Dunhill Archive are to be sold at Bonhams Distinguished Design sale in London on 30 November. The set is estimated at £100,000-150,000. The barrels of the pens date from the 1920s when the techniques which make dunhill-Namiki pens so special [Read More]

Bonhams are to auction one of the only known 14th century instruments, an exceedingly rare equal hour horary quadrant marked with the badge of King Richard II, at its Fine Clocks and Scientific Instrument Sale on 13 December 2011. Dated 1396, this extraordinary British time-telling mathematical instrument, which has come to light [Read More]

Sotheby’s will offer for auction on November 9, a prestigious and refined collection of 18th century books that is remarkable in terms of content, the quality of its illustrations, and the elegant morocco bindings which constitute a veritable ‘leitmotif’ of the ensemble. The Library was assembled in the 1950s and ’60s by [Read More]

A very rare and important George II English wooden doll, which has belonged to the same family for over two centuries, is to be sold by Bonhams, as part of its Fine Toys, Dolls and Lead Soldiers Sale on 15 November 2011. Named Marianna after its first owner, it has attracted a [Read More]

Christie’s presents an important single-owner collection of exceptional Chinese works of art from a renowned European connoisseur, to be offered on 30 November in Hong Kong This outstanding collection of fifteen rare works in jade, ivory and rhinoceros horn was put together over the past 50 years with a focus on the [Read More]

Two lavishly illustrated inventories of jewellery belonging to Ksenia Aleksandrovna, the Grand Duchess of Russia, are highlights of the Russian Sale, taking place on the 30th November 2011 at Bonhams, New Bond Street. As the daughter of Tsar Aleksander III and sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Ksenia led a privileged life [Read More]

Sotheby’s Paris will be devoting a whole day to Books and Manuscripts on 9 November 2011, staging two sales: the first devoted to Books & Manuscripts, Including the Library of a Connoisseur: History of Ideas, Science & Letters (2:30pm); the second (6:30pm) to a Collection of Precious Books from a Connoisseur’s Library. [Read More]

Sotheby’s New York four-day auction of Property from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra concluded on Friday with a total of $45,900,064 (est. in excess of $40 million). The Collections offered more than 800 lots of magnificent European furniture and works of art, Russian works of art, silver, paintings and [Read More]

The only known copy of an early German edition of the ”Legenda aurea“ will be auctioned at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on 21/22 November, 2011. A copy in this completeness of the richly illustrated edition of the two volume work can neither be found in commerce nor in the relevant bibliographies. The [Read More]

Offering Rare Americana, Colorplate Books, Manuscripts, Early Printing, Literature, Maps, Childrens’ Books and Illustrations Doyle New York’s November 7, 2011 sale of rare books opens with a selection of Americana, including an important Civil War diary by Lieutenant Frederick J. Bartlett of Company C of the 27th Ohio Colored Infantry. Among printed [Read More]

Sotheby’s London announces that it will sell a previously unrecorded example of the earliest version of the original Dockwra hand-stamps, the “Murray’s Post” stamp, in its English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations Sale on December 15th 2011. London Penny Post hand-stamp dating from 1680/81 Photo: Sotheby’s Marking a crucial development in [Read More]

Christie’s will offer a pair of Russian porcelain vases in their 28 November Russian Art Sale. These magnificent vases were presented by Emperor Nicholas I to Karl Ludwig Graf von Ficquelmont (1777-1857), who served as the Austrian Ambassador Extraordinaire to the Russian court from 1829-1839. Graf von Ficquelmont was one of Chancellor [Read More]