Europe

As early details about this year’s Frieze Masters have been released, dealers have also started sharing some key pieces of stock they will have on show.

A letter by Carl Linnaeus (1707-78), father of modern botany and taxonomy, has set an auction record in his native Sweden.

Not a first edition of the horror classic but the version printed five years later is also sought after

Might anyone be able to help track down a missing painting by Thomas Fearnley (1802-42), a Norwegian landscape painter of English descent?

Even though, as a rule, big-name wristwatches still attract the highest prices, recent sales show a resilient market for pocket watches.

One of the big surprises at a recent Ketterer (27% buyer’s premium) book auction in Hamburg was the result for a signed lithograph by Maurits Cornelis Escher.

Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier had a long and distinguished career, making a name for himself with his many-figured paintings of historical meetings.

Johannes Blaeu’s 'Atlas maior, sive Cosmographia…' is considered the finest collection of maps ever produced.

Since it was purchased at Sotheby’s in London in 1935, a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger had remained in possession of the family of a Swiss collector.

Banker and businessman Jörg Woltmann, who rescued the Berlin porcelain manufacturer, now also acquires a huge vase by the firm.

The latest round of art auctions in Ireland showed a marked buoyancy with totals and selling rates up on recent years.

This early 20th century Russian silver and cloisonné enamel pill box measuring just 1½in (3.5cm) across bears marks for Fabergé and Feodor Ruckert (1840-1917).

The Japanese netsuke carver Naito Toyomasa (1773-1856) was renowned for his miniature portrayals of animals in a distinctive, highly detailed style.

Selection of advertising art underlines the extraordinary demand in Germany

Two very different pieces of glass went way over the odds at a specialist sale at Dr Fischer (30% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn.

Two impressive vases from the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg took top honours at the sale held by Auktionshaus OWL (27% buyer’s premium) on May 16 in Bad Driburg in North-Rhine-Westfalia.